The luxury of choosing an opponent isn’t one that’s granted often in ice hockey. However, it does beg the question of whether a team would opt to play against a team that they’d not only beaten, but also suffered a heavy loss against. That is, unfortunately, the case for hosts Red Bull Munich, who find themselves up against a team who leapfrogged them in the Group Stage, courtesy of a 6-1 thumping on the final group gameday.

On a more positive note, they did beat the Malmö Redhawks 3-2 in the first encounter at their home venue of the Olympia-Eisstadion; a triumph they’ll hope to repeat with the intention of preventing the reverse fixture concluding in the manner it did. Regardless of that result, the German champs since proved that they can come from behind when they overcame EV Zug to become the first team from their country to make it this far. Their league form hasn’t been as consistent as they’d have liked since that result, with two losses from their last five games. The last game tends to be the most important, which bodes well for Munich after they beat Grizzlys Wolfsburg 5-1 to regain some ground domestically.

Visiting Malmö would prefer to ignore their previous domestic fixtures and instead focus on recreating the Group Stage performance, which hugely impacted where they now find themselves. It’s easy to forget that the Redhawks dispatched of SC Bern following that game and will back themselves to do the same to Munich. They know that a win will not only put themselves in a favourable position heading into the return leg, but that it could be a catalyst for their league form, where they are situated 6th in the Swedish Hockey League.