Belfast Giants 'flying Elite League flag' in Europe

Belfast Giants' new signing Marcus Eriksson recently featured in the pre-season games against Norway's Stavanger

The Belfast Giants begin their Champions Hockey League campaign this week with a home double-header against Finnish opposition.

Liiga winners KalPa will be the Giants' opening opponents on Thursday night with Ilves Tampere taking on Adam Keefe’s side on Saturday (both 19:00 BST).

Elite League champions Giants then face trips to Lausanne, Zug and Bern in Switzerland before rounding off the preliminary stages with a home game against Swedish side Brynas in October.

The top 16 of the 24 teams in the league ladder will make the knockout stages of Europe's premier competition, something the Giants have never achieved.

'Our goal is to qualify'

In preparation for their European campaign, the Giants had a pair of pre-season games against Norwegian side Stavanger as they try to integrate a number of new signings.

"I don't think you're really ever prepared this quickly for that level of competition, but we're certainly going to have to be," said Giants head coach Adam Keefe.

"Things are going to happen another second faster than they were against Stavanger at Champions League level.

“So, we also expect a little bump in our play and intensity just because things are for real."

The Giants have previously participated in the CHL on three occasions, finishing bottom of their group twice.

However, two years ago, under the new format where all 24 teams are ranked, the Giants won three CHL regular season games in a row against HC Bolzano, Red Bull Salzburg and Dynamo Pardubice and finished in 17th place in the standings, missing out on a place in the knockout rounds by a single point.

Adam Keefe leads the Giants into the CHL for the fourth time

"In the Champions League, you can't switch off at all," Keefe continued.

"If you want to come out with a win, everybody's got to be fully engaged for a full 60 minutes and making sure we're doing the little things to take care of our own net and defend extremely hard.

"And then we’ve got to find offense within that. That's what I've learned from the past.

"I've said before, in the first few times, we've been pretty happy to just be a part of the Champions League. Now we want to qualify, that's our goal."

KalPa have not appeared in the CHL since 2017 and shocked Finland by winning their first Liiga title last season.

"Any team that's in the Champions League; you got to be prepared for the best of very good leagues.

"We're going to have to be at our absolute best, that's for sure and we need to focus on ourselves and what we want to accomplish.

"We're flying the flag for the Elite League. We're flying the flag for Belfast, our organisation and ourselves."