With this year's Round of 16 return games just a day away, we take a look back at what's happened in years gone by.

by Luke Fisher

Six teams have turned around first-leg deficits across the past two seasons of Round of 16 action in the Champions Hockey League. We take a look back through the history books to find out how they did it...

Last season's eventual champions Frolunda Gothenburg again had to come from behind to secure their path to the next round, travelling home from Litvinov with a 2-1 deficit. The Czech visitors maintained that lead for 27 minutes, but they could only hold off the dangerous Frolunda offence for so long – the Indians scored 1 goal in the first 87 minutes of this series, but 6 in the last 33 with 3 goals coming on the power play. Spencer Abbott got the ball rolling a man up and added a second later, Sebastian Stalberg scored on a penalty shot, and Lars Johansson stopped all 14 shots he faced for the shutout to put the Gothenburg side through to the next round. 

Down by one on aggregate to Tappara Tampere, Lulea Hockey got a couple of goals in the first period to take the lead overall, but that's the way the score stayed for a long time – Tappara still a goal from tying it. In the last 10 minutes, however, Lulea broke the matchup open with 3 goals in a 5:36 span to stamp their ticket to the Quarter-Finals. Jacob Micflikier scored 2 goals, Toni Rajala had 3 assists and Daniel Larsson needed to make only 13 saves for the shutout. Lulea, of course, failed to make it through the group stage this year, while Tappara went out in the Round of 32.

The final comeback came in Oulu, where eventual runners-up Karpat headed back to home down 2 goals to Sparta Prague from the previous leg. Karpat were confident on their home ice and, after a scoreless first period, dominated the second and scored twice to tie the total score. The two teams traded goals early in the third, then things settled down and it looked like overtime was looming, but Mika Pyorala decided the series with 49 seconds to play with a beautiful move, beating the Sparta defence to the outside and then sliding it through the pads of Tomas Popperle to put Karpat through to the Quarter-Finals.

Two years ago, another three teams staged comebacks to put themselves through – including eventual champions Lulea, who did it on the road!

It was an absolutely wild game in Salzburg, where Red Bull carried a two-goal advantage into their home half of the series and, when they scored 3 goals in the first 11 minutes of the game to take a 5-goal aggregate lead, it looked like they had their ticket to the Quarter-Finals punched. However, Lulea rattled off 6 goals in a row – 5 in the second period and one midway through the third – to actually take the lead. Thomas Raffl scored his second goal of the game with 1:55 to play to send the series to overtime and then a shootout, but it was Lulea who prevailed, as Nicklas Fogstrom scored the shootout-winner to secure his hat-trick. 

JYP Jyvaskyla practically threw away their series against Skelleftea AIK, who came up big in the third period eventually forced a shootout which they won. JYP held a two-goal aggregate lead into the final three minutes of regulation time, but Oskar Sundqvist scored a power-play goal and then Par Lindholm tied it with just 18 seconds left. The visitors them went down 3-2 on a shootout. Of course, JYP got their revenge this year by knocking out Skelleftea in the Round of 32.

The final turnaround came in Finand, where SaiPa Lappeenranta were back on home ice after losing in Geneva 2-0. With the teams tied at 4 goals each after 130 minutes of hockey, including 10 minutes of sudden-death overtime, it needed a shootoot to decide who went through. There Jesse Mankinen and David McIntyre scored, while Jussi Markkanen stopped all four shots. Johan Larsson had a huge game for SaiPa, assisting on all 4 of his team's goals, while McIntyre also chipped in with two assists. Noah Rod's goal with just 56 seconds left in regulation time forced the series to overtime. 

Will there be more drama in this year's return legs? We'll find out tomorrow!