By Stuart Hughes BBC Sport Online

Belfast Giants coach Dave Whistle believes his team's status as underdogs is the key to their success.

The Superleague champions have qualified for the Continental Cup Super Finals and play their first game against hosts and Swiss league leaders HC Lugano on Friday.

Belfast will be hoping to go one better than Superleague rivals London Knights, who came second in the competition two years ago.

Dave Whistle told BBC Sport Online he was excited at the prospect of competing in Europe. "We're looking forward to getting over there," he said.

It's definitely going to be a step up from what we're used to Dave Whistle Belfast coach

"We're going to go in against Lugano on the first night and pressure them hard and try and get on the board early.

"Hopefully we can get an early one or two goal lead and just ride on it. If we can do that who knows what's going to happen?

"We're playing well at the moment. We're fore-checking hard and our goaltending has been strong all year long.

"My team know how their opponents will play and they know they'll be up against some good players who can score goals.

"There's going to be some fast games and it's definitely going to be a step up from what we're used to."

Whistle insisted he was not concerned at the relative lack of the depth in his squad compared with the longer benches of his European opponents.

"They are going to have 22 players and we have 18 but I think everyone plays better when they're in the game.

"We just want to go in there and play for fun."