EIHL in the CHL

Early Struggles to Later Success



The Champions Hockey League (CHL), began in 2014/15. In the first year, the EIHL were awarded one place. This place was to go to the Belfast Giants, the league winners, but the Giants were not able to play and so the Nottingham Panthers took their CHL spot and the Giants would enter the Continental Cup instead. In their first CHL outing, the EIHL did not fare so well, with Nottingham finishing bottom of Group K with 3 points. Although perhaps the EIHL club were at a disadvantage, having lost 10-1 and 9-1 to the eventual winners of the inaugural CHL Championship. The Panthers finished the campaign with 1 win and 5 losses but scored at least once in 5 of their 6 games.



For 2015/16, the EIHL were awarded two CHL spots, these going to the Sheffield Steelers and the then Braehead Clan, the teams who finished 1^st and 2^nd in the league campaign. Sheffield didn’t win any games in their first CHL outing but did manage to register goals in 3 of their 4 games. Like in the previous season, an EIHL team was up against the eventual champion in the group stages and Sheffield managed to hold the Frolunda Indians to a 1-4 scoreline in their home game. The Braehead Clan fared better than their EIHL counterpart in the campaign, registering a win against ERC Ingolstadt of the DEL at the Braehead Arena on 5^th September. Braehead scored in all four of their games and are the only Scottish representative from the EIHL to play in the CHL to date.



In 2016/17, the third season of the CHL, the league-winning Steelers once again made it to the CHL where they faced HV71 and Red Bull Salzburg. Sheffield won 1, lost 3 and scored 11 goals, their 5-2 victory coming against Salzburg at the Motorpoint Arena on Game Day 10.



The fourth season of the CHL marked the CHL debut of the Cardiff Devils and the return of the Nottingham Panthers. Cardiff won 2 of their 6 games in the group stages, beating Liberec of the Czech league and HC Davos of the Swiss NLA. But it was the Nottingham Panthers who would make history for the EIHL, becoming the first team to not only advance to the playoffs, but also to win their group. The Panthers topped Group F with 11 points in 6 games, beating Mountfield HK twice in August, before going on to win 4-2 against SC Bern and 2-0 against TPS Turku in front of a home crowd at Motorpoint Arena. This marked the first time an EIHL club shut out their CHL opponent. The Panthers moved on to play ZSC Lions Zurich in the round of 16 where they fell to a 6-1 aggregate defeat, with the lone Panthers goal coming from Brett Perlini in the first leg.



Cardiff were the sole EIHL representative in 2018/19 but were not able to build on the success of their previous campaign. The 2017/18 EIHL league winners lost 6 of 6. However, despite this, Cardiff kept games close and only once lost by a margin greater than 2 goals, this coming in a 5-3 loss to Red Bull Salzburg at Ice Arena Wales on Game Day 1. Although losing 6, Cardiff did manage to get a point from a 3-2 OT loss against SC Bern on Game Day 2 and another from a 6-5 OT loss against the SHL’s Växjö Lakers on Game Day 6, both contests taking place at Ice Arena Wales.


In 2019/20, the CHL once again involved 2 EIHL clubs, the Belfast Giants and the Cardiff Devils. The Giants made their CHL debut after issues in the CHL’s inaugural season had forced them to withdraw from the competition. As runners up of the Continental Cup, held at the SSE Arena, the club were selected as the representative of this competition in the CHL. Since the league-winning Giants had already qualified via the Continental Cup, the runners up, the Cardiff Devils, were able to take part. The sixth season of the CHL marked the third time for the Cardiff Devils in this competition. Belfast finished 4^th in Group C with 4 points from 6 games and Cardiff finished 3^rd in Group H with 8. Belfast’s points came from a 5-4 win against Liberec on 29^th August and an overtime loss to the Augsburger Panthers two days later. Cardiff finished just behind the eventual finalists, Frolunda and Mountfield, and Frolunda went on to take their fourth CHL title. Despite losing 9-2 in each of their contests against Frolunda, Cardiff won the first of their 2 against Mountfield at Ice Arena Wales.


2018/19 also marked another CHL success for the Belfast Giants. The Giants were the winners of the Champions Hockey League Marketing Award which recognizes the team who most creatively and actively promotes the CHL. Not only this, but the Giants also won the CHL fan challenge!


Despite early on-ice struggles in the CHL, the EIHL are beginning to make a name for themselves in Europe in both the Continental Cup and CHL.