Devils look for revenge in Mannheim

Photo: David Williams

The Cardiff Devils, the Elite League's sole representatives in this season's Champions Hockey League, head on the road for Game Days 3 ad 4 this week - starting tonight in Mannheim, Germany.

Die Adler were 5-0 victors at Ice Arena Wales a week ago, but were then soundly beaten in Finland by Lukko Rauma two days later. The Devils meanwhile beat Lausanne 4-1, making tonight's fixture a clash of the teams placed second and third in the group.

Cardiff will welcome Head Coach Jarrod Skalde back behind the bench tonight after he missed the two opening games through the COVID-19 protocol. Assistant Neil Francis will also join him, however Josh Batch and Ben Davies remain in isolation. Mark Louis is scratched due to injury, meaning that on-loa Zach Sullivan has travelled with the team.

Mannheim will be down four players due to the protocol. Moritz Wirth, Joonas Lehtivuori, Markus Eisenschmid, and Florian Elias are all in isolation, the team reported on Wednesday. Lehtivuori scored with an unstoppable slapshot in Cardiff.

In better news, the team are allowed to use half of their 13,600 capacity for spectators. This comes after the entire DEL played a shortened season in 2021/22 entirely behind closed doors.