CHL - Finnish Teams Looking Strong

Of the sixteen teams that make up the Finnish SM-liiga, half of them entered this seasons Champions Hockey League. They were founding clubs: 
HIFK Helsinki, JYP Jyvaskyla, KalPa Kuopio, Karpat Oulu, Tappara Tampere and TPS Turku.
Lukko Rauma and Espoo Blues also entered this years competition having finished strongly in their domestic campaigns the previous season. Lukko were playoff semi-finalists while Espoo finished the regular season in fifth.
Only KalPa Kuopio failed to qualify for the Round of 32. That was due in part to being placed in a tough Group L which contained Norwegian giants Stavanger Oilers.
Tappara, TPS and Karpat all won their respective groups, while HIFK, Espoo, Lukko and JYP finished as runners up in theirs. With the exception of Espoo, those teams were all second to strong Swedish outfits. HIFK lost both their games to Linkopings HC, Lukko found it tough against Lulea while Frolunda HC were too strong for JYP.

Espoo will now face German champions Adler Mannheim in the next round, while Karpat and Lukko will also both face teams from the DEL. The Oulu side will pay a visit to the Ruhr region to play Dusseldorfer EG and Lukko will venture to Bavaria to play Red Bull Munich.
Helsinki team HIFK will face the Swiss team HC Davos, while Tappara will go to Vitkovice Steel of the Czech Republic.
We also have the prospect of an all-Finland derby when JYP play TPS. Hopefully there will still be six teams from Finland left standing by the time we reach the Round of 16.
The above games will take place on September 22 and October 6.