The ever-present EV Zug will start their seventh Champions Hockey League season with a Round of 32 knockout match-up against 2014/15 Semi-Finalists Skellefteå AIK.
Zug, who have never missed out on a CHL Season, qualified thanks to their second-place finish in the Swiss National League, while Skellefteå’s fourth-place finish in the SHL was enough to secure them their sixth CHL start.
“(Skellefteå) are probably the toughest team in Pot 2,” said Zug Head Coach Dan Tangnes. The 41-year-old Norwegian took over coaching duties in Zug back in 2018 and guided them all the way to the NL finals in his first year at the club. Tangnes moved to Switzerland after spending his whole 13-year coaching career in Sweden. “But we look forward to the tough, but fun, challenge ahead of us,” he added.
“Our fans will be hungry for CHL playoff hockey.”Dan Tangnes (Head Coach, EV Zug)
While Zug will have to make do with just one head coach, Skellefteå have appointed three men to share the responsibility for 2020/21 – Stefan Klockare, Andreas Falk and Stefan Hedlund will all be behind the team bench come October. “We have played twice in Switzerland and only have good memories from those times,” said Stefan Klockare who has been involved with Skellefteå as a coach since 2003. He gradually made his way through the youth ranks to become a member of the men’s team coaching staff in 2010, where he has stayed ever since. “Zug are a team highly ranked in Europe. They will be a big challenge for us,” he added.
Though Zug and Skellefteå have never met in the CHL, both clubs have connections between each other. “Hedlund spent time as a coach at Zug a few years ago. He knows a lot of the players and the club itself,” said Klockare, acknowledging the fact that his colleague Hedlund spent two seasons working with Zug in Switzerland. But Zug also have history with Skellefteå – Tangnes knows Skellefteå very well from his time in Sweden. Not only has he faced them many times before in the SHL; while at Linköping HC, Tangnes’ team was knocked out of the 2014/15 CHL Quarter-Finals by Skellefteå.
“We want to be at the top of Europe.”Stefan Klockare (Head Coach, Skellefteå AIK)
Both teams have high goals for the upcoming season. “Our goal is always to win,” said Klockare. “That’s the kind of club we are and want to be.”
Zug have a similar view: “We’ll take it round by round, but of course we dream of a long CHL run,” said Tangnes. “The tournament is growing every year and we’ve been lucky to participate in each year so far,” he added, “so fans will be hungry to get the adrenalin pumping with CHL playoff hockey after our national playoffs were cancelled.”
The new format is a big change for Skellefteå as well: “Playoff games are fun, but the Group Stage would have been good preparation for us. This puts us to the test straight away,” concluded Klockare.