The 2018/19 season of the Champions Hockey League turned out to be one of the most exciting seasons in the league’s history – with unexpected results, debuting teams and a surprise pair of Finalists, the first puck drop of the season was on 30 August and after 124 games the one-game Final took place in Gothenburg on 5 February.
There were no new regulations introduced for the fifth instalment of Europe’s top club ice hockey competition, as the league focused on further embedding the big changes introduced the previous year.
Playing format
The 32 participating teams were drawn into eight groups of four for the Group Stage phase. Each team played each other home and away between 30 August and 17 October 2018 when the Group Stage ended. The top two teams of the eight groups were seeded into two groups where the group winners were randomly drawn against group runners-up to make the Playoff Stage. The Playoff Stage, starting with the Round of 16, then the Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals, was played in a two-game home-and-away knock-out series, where the winner on goals aggregate advanced on to each further stage. The Final was a one game, winner-takes-all match.
Season stats
- 32 teams, 14 nations and 13 leagues were represented in 2018/19
- three teams made their debut in the competition
- the most represented nations were Sweden and Finland (five teams each)
- a total of 738 goals were scored (three more than the previous year, keeping the average of nearly six per match)
- the Växjö Lakers bowed out in the Group Stage just one year after being finalists
- the Frölunda Indians regained the European title after beating surprise finalists Red Bull Munich 3-1
- Frölunda’s Ryan Lasch scored a league-high 22 points, crowning him the league’s most productive player of the year (6 points more than the previous season’s highest tally)
Group Stage
The Group Stage provided a few surprises – while Swedish teams Frölunda, Malmö Redhawks and Skellefteå AIK all won their groups, Djurgården Stockholm and the Växjö Lakers both failed to advance – the latter a year after hosting the Final.
HC Bolzano and the Rouen Dragons both advanced to the Round of 16 to become the first ever teams from Italy and France to advance from their groups.
Czech side HC Pilsen went unbeaten in their group and secured a league high 17 points, whilst knocking out defending champions JYP Jyväskylä who narrowly missed out on the playoffs.
First-timers GKS Tychy beat the Rouen Dragons and earned the very first win for a Polish team in the CHL.
The Swiss were the only nation to have all their representatives qualify for the Playoffs, as all four Swiss teams made the Round of 16.
Round of 16
While Storhamar, Rouen and Bolzano bowed out in the Round of 16, teams from Germany and Austria advanced to the Quarter-Finals for the very first time. The Swiss, who were in full force, had a disastrous evening in the return legs of the first Playoffs round - all four teams secured manageable results from the first matches, but four losses into the evening, they were all out of the title race. Switzerland went from being the most represented nation, to not having a single team remaining in the league.
The only two remaining Czech teams were really giving it their all – Kometa Brno edged ten past Tappara Tampere over the two legs, whilst Pilsen scored 12 against Bolzano to remain unbeaten in the competition. Red Bull Munich bested EV Zug to become the first ever DEL team in the Quarter-Finals, whilst Red Bull Salzburg became the first EBEL team to make it this far into the CHL.
Kärpät Oulu, Skellefteå and Frölunda all won in dramatic fashion to narrowly make the final cut for the Quarter-Finals.
Quarter-Finals
Three of the four matches played were decided by a only a single goal, showcasing just how close the teams in the CHL really are. The fourth match, between Frölunda and Kometa Brno, ended 10:2 on aggregate for Frölunda and once again proved just how good the Swedish giants are at knockout matches.
Pilsen faced Skellefteå and after a 3:3 draw in Sweden, the Czech team won 2:1 at home to further continue their season long unbeaten run.
Munich faced the Redhawks. After a 2:1 win for the Germans at home, they struggled with Malmö’s pressure during the return game in Sweden and fell behind. With the aggregate score at 6:6 after regulation the game went to overtime. Red Bull’s Trevor Parkes earned Munich their place in the final four with his overtime-winning hat-trick goal.
Salzburg dispatched Liiga champions Kärpät in arguably the biggest surprise of the season. The first game in Austria was decided by Salzburg’s John Hughes seconds before the final buzzer and Kärpät were unable to overcome the one goal deficit at home, so Salzburg extended their fairy tale run into the Playoffs.
The Semi-Finals
The Semi-Finals witnessed a first in the Champions Hockey League, as two Red Bull teams lined up against each other. Bearing similar club crests and jersey colours, it was sometimes hard to distinguish each club on the ice. The first game ended 0:0 – the first time that has ever happened in CHL history, and the return game played in Austria ended in favour of the Munich Red Bulls, but remains a historic sporting achievement for RB Salzburg and an EBEL team.
The second Semi-Final tie saw two titans finally meet – unbeaten Pilsen and an ever-stronger Frölunda who proved to be the better side of the two. Two decisive wins both home and away secured them their fourth Finals appearance and sent the final Czech team remaining crashing out for good.
The Final
The Final featured a very unlikely matchup, as Frölunda faced Munich in the most important game of the year. The sold out Scandinavium in Gothenburg witnessed a great game of hockey, as Frölunda, led by captain Joel Lundqvist, built up a 3-0 lead after two periods. Munich, however, refused to go quietly and performed well in the final 20 minutes, getting a goal from Yasin Ehliz to make the final score a respectable 3-1. But the Indians were the Champions for the third time – three crowns for the Swedish club – and Ryan Lasch won his second CHL scoring title with 22 points (5 + 17).