The evening before the two teams clash in the 2015–16 Champions Hockey League Final, captains Joel Lundqvist and Lasse Kukkonen and head coaches Roger Ronnberg and Lauri Marjamaki of Frolunda Gothenburg and Karpat Oulu met the media.

by Derek O'Brien and Miikka Jarvenpaa

OULU – On the eve of the Champions Hockey League Final, representatives from both home Karpat Oulu and visiting Frolunda Gothenburg assembled at Oulun Energia Areena, the site of Tuesday's game, to answer a few questions from the media.

Frolunda coach Roger Ronnberg opened by mentioning his team's recent struggles in the domestic Swedish Hockey League, but doesn't anticipate that affecting the team's performance on Tuesday.

“We're playing in two separate leagues, the SHL and the CHL, and we treat them both separately,” he said. “On the other hand, we know that we play a really good team here, so we have to make sure we're ready. We practised already today. We played a league game on Saturday, had Sunday off and practised today before flying up here.”

On the differences between the two competitions, Ronnberg continued, “We know that we play really good teams in the Champions Hockey League, but the hockey is a little bit different. We have to be able to adjust the way we play a little bit. We were forced to adjust against Davos and we were very successful. We also know we'll have to adjust a little bit against Karpat, so I think the quick adjustment is key.”

Frolunda captain Joel Lundqvist scored just 17 seconds into last year's Final in Lulea, but his team finished on the losing end. Now his team is back this year with unfinished business.

“We're excited and we're happy to be here, but that doesn't mean we're satisfied just with being here – we want to win. We lost the Final last year, so we want to win it this year.”

On the team's game plan, he said that “we just know we'll have to play a solid game tomorrow. If we play our own game, we know that we have a good enough team to win.”

Next, Karpat coach Lauri Marjamaki was asked about his team's approach to the game, and expressed confidence in his team. 

“Top teams use the one opportunity that they are given. They don’t have to explain themselves when it's all over, saying that ‘we should have done this and that…’ We've earned our place in this game, so we might as well enjoy it.”

When last year's CHL Semi-Final between the same two teams was mentioned, Marjamaki said, “We played really well in both of those games. We started well in Gothenburg before the ice broke down,” he said, referring to ice problems in the first leg that caused a delay. “Then we lost our focus. 

“We learned that we have a chance against them and we are able to challenge them. We have to play extremely solid 60 minutes. ‘Pretty good’ is not enough tomorrow. We have to be tactically smart, but above all the intensity and tempo will be high tomorrow.”

One of the big stories surrounding Karpat right now is Joni Pitkanen, who played his first professional hockey game in almost three years on Saturday, and by all accounts played well. But Marjamaki refused to indicate whether he or injured defenceman Markus Nutivaara would play.

 “Before the big games, the team is healthy. We’ll see tomorrow who's playing,” he answered wryly.

One defenceman that will surely play for Karpat is captain Lasse Kukkonen, who looked ready for battle sporting a black eye.

“Pitkanen looked great (on Saturday). His playing and skating look great. Above all it was great to see him play at all. It also made me break smile to see him put on the jersey and helmet and get back onto the ice after a long battle. Hats off to Joni for all that rehab, the battle and the will to play again. It’s a huge thing and I’m extremely happy for him.”

On the game, Kukkonen summed up, “Huge game, sold-out arena, CHL Final at Raksila . . . Not many players have the opportunity to experience a game like this.”