1st game for Kalpa, Skelleftea try to rebound.

In their first two CHL attempts, KalPa Kuopio have failed to get out of the group stage. They aim to finally do that this year, but it won't be easy given the group they've been drawn into. To make things more difficult, Saturday's opponents, the powerful Skelleftea AIK, will be hungry after dropping their first game in Vienna on Thursday. 

"We are really looking forward to the CHL game against Skelleftea AIK. We have had a great off season and we’ve trained hard. Skelleftea is a very good team, who skate well and they give pressure and don’t stop the puck when behind the net. We are expecting high intensive hockey, we really need to be ready," sad KalPa defenceman Juuso Riikola before his team's first CHL game this season. "Our last game was a pre-season game against Jokerit last week and we won that 4-2. We controlled the game and we need to be able to play even better now, when playing in the CHL. The Champions Hockey League is a great league and the games are something we’re really excited about. It’s fantastic to play against a top Swedish team."

After Thursday's overtime defeat at the hands of the captitals, new Skelleftea coach Fredrik Oberg is not worried: "There were some unlucky bounces for us and we came back and tied it up, and then an unlucky bounce in the end. We got one point, so we're gonna qualify later."

However, he will surely want to make sure he picks up a win in Kuopia to make sure his squad is not last in the group – an almost unthinkable scenario going in - with half of their games played.