Latvians Grigals and Zīle face Czech and German opposition in Champions Hockey League round of 16

Two Latvian players are in Champions Hockey League (CHL) round-of-16 action on Wednesday. Goaltender Gustavs Dāvis Grigals and Finnish club SaiPa host the Czech champions Dynamo Pardubice in Lappeenranta at 18:30 Riga time, while defenceman Kristaps Zīle and Bílí Tygři Liberec visit Kölner Haie at 20:30. The second legs are next week, in Liberec on 17 November and in Pardubice on 18 November, and the aggregate winners reach the quarter-finals.

A third Latvian, Kristiāns Rubīns, started the round on Tuesday: Plzeň, the regular-stage winners, lost 5-4 in Davos, and Rubīns had an assist.

Grigals has a new contract

SaiPa announced on Tuesday that they had extended Grigals’s contract until the end of the 2027-28 season. The Latvia goaltender, who helped the national team win the Deutschland Cup earlier this month, has played eight games in Liiga, Finland’s top division, this season: three wins including a shutout, a save percentage of 91.9% and a goals-against average of 1.69. In four CHL games his figures are 90.9% and 1.99.

SaiPa are second in Liiga with 34 points from 18 games. In their final CHL regular-stage game in October, they lost 6-3 at home to Plzeň.

Zīle faces German opposition

Liberec extended the 28-year-old Zīle’s contract by two seasons on 3 November, to the end of 2028-29. The defenceman is in his second season at Liberec and his fifth in the Czech Republic. Before the extension he had four assists in 16 Extraliga games. In the CHL regular stage, Liberec won 2-0 in Davos on 14 October on their way to the play-offs.

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