Inaugural season

The Champions Hockey League became the new pan-European club competition featuring 44 clubs from eleven league and twelve countries. The CHL, originally founded by 26 clubs, six national leagues and the International Ice Hockey Federation, opened on 21 August and ended with game No. 161 on 9 February 2015 with an all-Swedish matchup where Luleå Hockey defeated Frölunda Gothenburg 4-2, staging a dramatic third-period four-goal comeback after being down 2-0 after two.

Playing format

The 2014-2015 Champions Hockey League was split into two phases, the Group Stage and the Playoffs. The Group Stage was made up of 11 groups with four teams in each. After a double home-and-away round-robin series, the eleven group winners and the five best second-placed teams (total 16 teams) advanced to the 1/8-finals. The Playoffs (1/8-finals, quarter-finals and semi-finals) were home-and-away knock-out games where the winner on goals aggregate advanced. The Final was one game, played at the venue of the team with the best accumulated Group Stage and Playoff record.

Group Stage Review I click here for Group Stage Standings 2014/15

Although the Nordic clubs (Finland and Sweden with eleven out of sixteen playoff entries) dominated the Group Stage emphatically, it were the two Austrian clubs Red Bull Salzburg and Vienna Capitals who stole the show. Both teams won their respective groups in superior fashion, with both collecting 15 points, and in the process defeating some of the best brands in European club hockey. Other playoff teams were Fribourg-Gottéron and Genève-Servette (both SUI) and Sparta Prague (CZE).

Playoff Review I click here for Playoff Tree 2014/15

The Finnish and Swedish dominance continued into the playoffs. Once the 1/8-finals were over only teams from the Nordic countries remained in the top-8, four from each. The Final-Four team were Kärpät Oulu (FIN) and Luleå Hockey, Skellefteå AIK and Frölunda Gothenburg (all SWE). Both semi-final series were one-goal contests. Luleå edged regional rival Skellefteå 5-4 in two games, while Frölunda needed overtime at Oulu where they scored a dramatic sudden-death goal for an aggregate 6-5 win.

In the final at Luleå, the visitors jumped to a two goal-lead after goals from veteran and captain Joel Lundqvist and eventual CHL MVP Mathis Olimb. Frölunda seemed to have things under perfect control when Luleå exploded with three power-play goals within less than six minutes midway through the final period. Swiss defenseman Dean Kukan put things beyond doubt with an empty-netter. 4-2 and the city of Luleå exploded.