HC Bolzano will be looking to capitalise on home advantage in the first-leg of their Round of 16 matchup with Lukko Rauma that both teams will go into confident of their chances to progress further.  

Bolzano came through as runners-up in Group H managing to maintain an unbeaten record in regulation time - a feat matched by their Finnish opponents.The tie comes at a good time for The Foxes however, who will host Lukko in the middle of a rich vien in form, having won five of their last six in Austria’s ICE League. 

Brett Findlay has been a key contributor for the Italians, posting 5G and 2A in six games during the Group Stage along with defenceman Mathew Maione, who weighed in with 2G and 5A. 

Lukko, who made it through to the Round of 16 as winners of Group C, are no strangers to going past the Round of 16 of the competition. And the team will aspire to follow the success they had in 2015/16, when they reached the Semi-Finals, in what was their best campaign to date in the CHL. 

To achieve that however, they must put aside their current struggles in the Finnish Liiga that has seen them slip into a three-game losing streak. That will mean Lukko requiring their joint-leading scorers Sebastian Repo and Linus Nyman (each on 4G) to again threaten, along with playmaker Scott Pooley. 

Key to the Finns will be a defensive-core that has proven it can dominate forward lines in the CHL, conceding just 1.83 goals-against-per-game in the Group Stage (fifth best in group stage) in addition to possessing the second-best penalty killing record in the competition (90.91%). 

After splitting starts during the Group Stage, Lassi Lehtinen is likely to be in net for Lukko after Samuel Jukuri recently departed the club.