This Champions Hockey League season has seen a lot of close games between teams from traditional and non-traditional hockey countries, and the Sheffield Steelers and Sparta Prague are both good examples with two non-regulation time decisions.

Through two games, the Steelers are probably unlucky to have only two points, but their away performances in Switzerland and Sweden have received attention. In their opener, they narrowly lost 4-3 to Fribourg-Gottéron. Then, in a Saturday stunner, they beat the Växjo Lakers 3-2 on an overtime powerplay goal by Marc-Olivier Vallerand. The Steelers even outshot the Lakers 27-23 in the game.

The Steelers have had pretty balanced scoring so far, with six forwards on two points – Daniel Ciampini and Daniel Leavens have two goals each. Defenceman Kevin Tansey has seven hits, and Campini, Leavens and Tansey all have five shots on goal. Dominic Cormier ranks fifth in CHL ice time at 23:17 per game. Matthew Greenfield has played both games in goal and has a save percentage of 89.66%.

Sparta’s first two games were at home, and they opened with a defensive battle against former European Club Champions Tappara Tampere, eventually falling 2-1 in overtime. In their second game against Fehérvár AV19, Sparta trailed 1-0 after one period and 2-1 after two before turning it on in the third period and winning 5-2, thanks to two goals from Tomáš Hýka.

Offensively, Sparta is led by three points each by Filip Chlapík and Michal Řepík. Řepík and Roman Horák each have eight shots on goal. Among defencemen, Jakub Krejčík is the team’s top ice-getter at 21:42 per game and has five blocked shots. In two games in goal, Josef Kořenář has a save percentage of 93.18%.

If the first two game days are any indication, this should be a close game and it should be a physical one as well – the Steelers and Sparta rank third and fourth in hits per game at 10.50 and 10.00, respectively.