Devils open CHL campaign against Mannheim

Photo: David Williams

The Cardiff Devils open their 2021/22 Champions Hockey League campaign against Adler Mannheim tonight, hoping to get the Jarrod Skalde era off to a winning start at Ice Arena Wales.

Watch all of the Devils CHL games live on FreeSports!

The fixture will be the Devils' first game since they contested the Challenge Cup Final on 8 March 2020, and the first professional ice hockey game to take place anywhere in the UK with a crowd since that date.

"I've seen several of Mannheim's pre-season games, and they're a very well-built and well-coached team," said Skalde, ahead of his first game behind the Devils bench. "They're very aggressive in all areas of the ice and it's something we'll have to be aware of, and have spoken about at length leading up to this game."

The Adler have played three pre-season games in the run-up to the CHL, beating CHL Group Stage opponents Lausanne 3-1 before then losing to Zug and Cologne 5-1 and 2-1 respectively.

"Unfortunately. we don't know much about Cardiff as their pre-season tournament was cancelled," commented Assistant Coach Mike Pellegrims in the team's pre-departure press conference. "But in general British teams are very physical, so far as my experience goes."

Mannheim will be without David Wolf, Mark Katic Tim Wohlgemuth through injury, while Thomas Larkin is away with the Italian national team for the Final Olympic Qualification Tournament.

"We have good players in our roster, but haven't really found our line combinations yet," added Head Coach Pavel Gross. We want to play better in the next games than in previous ones, but that only happens when we play as a team."

Faceoff in Wales is at 19:00.