An all-Swedish clash in the Round of 16 sees two Champions Hockey League veterans go head-to-head: past CHL finalists the Växjö Lakers and reigning CHL Champions Frölunda Gothenburg!

Växjö, who have now qualified for the CHL Playoffs in 7/9 seasons, finished 12th in the Regular Season Standings with a 3-3 record. Across their first six games of the season, the four-time SHL champions faced some mighty strong teams and held firm against them.

A 4:0 win over past CHL champions Genève-Servette in the Vida Arena - the venue for this game - and two very close 2-1 losses to reigning Czech Extraliga champions Dynamo Pardubice and reigning Liiga champions Tappara Tampere stand out as a great representation of how Växjö have played up to this point. 

The Swedes have scored in each game they've played and with 16 goals for and just 11 goals against (second-lowest out of all teams in the Regular Season!), a strong blue line and near-perfect goaltending are two areas they have clearly relied upon. Powerplay efficiency (15%) has been mediocre but their penalty kill (90.48%) is up their with some of the best. Stats like these would usually give a team solid ground over an opponent, but not against Frölunda.

Four wins over the course of the Regular Season saw five-time CHL Champions Frölunda beat teams from Finland, Norway and France to ultimately finish 6th in the standings. The Swedes scored the second-most goals for across the Regular Season (28) and also recorded one of the highest goal differences, finishing on +14 after the first phase of the competition.

Their staple high-scoring, high-output and strong special-unit play hasn't left them one bit and heading into the knockout rounds, everybody should be fearing these juggernauts of European hockey.