Continental Cup is ready to go

The 2024-25 Continental Cup gets underway this month with eight teams taking their first steps along the road to European glory.

It’s a long way from the first-round tournaments in Sofia and Narva to January’s Grand Final, but this is where the dream starts. From here, the winners of the two four-team groups will advance to the second round in October. There, the same format will determine two qualifiers for the semi-final groups in November. And the top two teams in those sections will form the final four to contest the final in January 2025 at a venue to be determined.

Conti Cup veterans clash in Sofia

In Group A, host club Irbis Skate welcomes Liege Bulldogs, Crvena Zvezda Belgrade and KHL Sisak to Sofia, Bulgaria. Liege will be looking for a repeat of last season’s success at this stage, after it advanced by defeating Jaca in a one-off game in Spain. Bryan Kolodziejczyk was Liege’s top scorer in last season’s run, and the 32-year-old, whose career took in a brief spell with Mulhouse in France’s Ligue Magnus, is back to lead the offence again here. 

However, the competition promises to be intense. Crvena Zvezda hosted a second-round group last time and regularly represents Serbia in this competition. Goalie Arsenije Rankovic, 32, brings significant international experience with Team Serbia. He’s also backstopped five Conti Cup campaigns for his club.

Across the border in Croatia, KHL Sisak returns to Continental Cup action for the first time since 2022-23. That year, the team won its first-round qualifying group. This season’s roster features  Dominic Canic, a New Zealand-born Croatian international who was second in team scoring in its previous campaign (3+6=9 in six games). Two-way defenceman Ivan Puzic and versatile forward Patrik Dobric are among the other scoring leaders returning from that edition.

Host club Irbis was unable to compete in last season’s competition despite winning the Bulgarian championship. The Sofia club also missed out after qualifying for the 2020-21 season when the cup was cancelled due to the pandemic. Previously, Irbis played in four consecutive tournaments, starting in 2016-17, but never made it through the first round.

To Estonia for the first time since ‘97

Group B assembles in Estonia, where host club Narva returns to the competition for the first time since its 2017-18 debut. Back then, Narva could not win a game, but with home ice advantage, hopes are high for an improvement. This is the first time…