Juha Junno of Karpat Oulu got what he hoped for from today's draw, and that was an international team. But says that facing Dusseldorfer EG won’t be an easy task at all. He also opens up on what’s so great about the Champions Hockey League.

by Niko Korkiakoski

HELSINKI – Karpat Oulu general manager was certainly intrigued by the opponent his team has drawn in the CHL's Round of 32. After all, Dusseldorfer EG drew among the largest crowds during the group stage.

“The home crowd in Dusseldorf is really loud and it’s going to be an interesting pairing, that’s for sure,” Junno said about the prospect of travelling to play in the German city. “The games are going to be some hard battles. Dusseldorf are a hard-playing and physical team and not the easiest opponent that we could have got.”

Karpat Oulu and Dusseldorfer EG will get some mileage on their wings, since the distance between the two cities is well over 2000 kilometres, one way, but that doesn’t seem to bother the general manager.

“From a business point of view it would’ve been better to get an opponent close to home and in Finland, since their wouldn’t be so much travelling involved, but from a sports point of view, this is better. And this is what we wanted,” he explained.

The 32 teams that made the playoff stage include teams from Finland, Sweden, Germany, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Norway, Austria and Slovakia. Junno is happy with the fact that there are so many nationalities in the playoffs, but he’s also glad that all but one team from the Finnish and Swedish leagues have made it this far.

“What’s great about this league is that there’s so many teams from different backgrounds and countries. Austria, Slovakia, Germany, etc. It’s nice to go really international when it comes to the playoffs. I’m also happy that seven out of eight Finnish teams made it this far. It gives us a chance to see where we’re at when we go up against teams from other leagues in Europe.”

Karpat have the fifth best average in attendance so far and the best out of the Finnish teams, averaging at 5589 spectators per game.

“The fans up north love it. The fact that we’ve had teams visit from all over Europe these two years in the CHL is a great thing and it gives a good spice to everything.” Karpat fans got a good dose of highly entertaining CHL hockey last year and Junno said, “Actually, the games against Frolunda last year were probably the best Karpat has ever played.”

Junno is known for a great eye when it comes to doing business. And says they have marketed the CHL to the fans and the partners as being an international thing.

“We want to go international and that’s why we’re in this,” the Karpat general manager summed up.