2018–19 Champions Hockey League
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The 2018–19 Champions Hockey League was the fifth season of the
Champions Hockey League The Champions Hockey League is a European first-level ice hockey tournament. Launched in the 2014–15 season by 26 clubs, 6 leagues and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the tournament features top teams across Europe. Backgrou ...
, a European
ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
tournament. The tournament was competed by 32 teams, and qualification was on sporting merits only. The six founding leagues were represented by between three and five teams (based on a four-year league ranking), while seven "challenge leagues" were represented by one team each. One place was awarded to the Continental Cup champion. Unlike in the first three editions, founding teams did not automatically qualify. The group stages began on 30 August 2018, and ended on 17 October 2018. The season had an average attendance of 3,401 per game, one percent increase from the previous season. Swedish team
Frölunda HC Frölunda Hockey Club, previously known as the Frölunda Indians, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club based in Gothenburg. They currently play in the highest Swedish league, the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), formerly the Elitserien, where th ...
won their third Champions Hockey League title, defeating Red Bull München, the first German team to reach the final, 3–1 at the
Scandinavium Scandinavium () is an indoor arena located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Construction on Scandinavium began in 1969 after decades of setbacks, and was inaugurated on 18 May 1971. Scandinavium has been selected as a championship arena at least fifty t ...
in
Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...
.


Team allocation

A total of 32 teams from different
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
an first-tier leagues participated in the 2018–19 Champions Hockey League. Besides the Continental Cup champions, 24 teams from the six founding leagues, as well as the national champions from Slovakia, Norway, Denmark, France, Belarus, the United Kingdom and Poland qualified. The qualification for these places was set out in the rules as follows: # National league champion (play-off winners) # Regular season winners # Regular season runner-up # Losing play-off finalist # Higher regular season ranked losing semi-finalist # Lower regular season ranked losing semi-finalist # Third placed team in regular season # Fourth placed team in regular season # Fifth placed team in regular season.


Teams


Group stage

For the group stage, the teams were drawn into 8 groups of 4 teams. Each team played home and away against every other team for a total of 6 games. The best 2 teams qualified to the round of 16.


Pots

As the reigning CHL champions, JYP were the top seeded team. In the top pot were also the reigning champions of the six founding leagues and the regular season winner of SHL. The 16 remaining teams from founding leagues were placed to pots 2 and 3. The fourth pot included playoff champions of seven challenge leagues and
Yunost Minsk HC Yunost-Minsk ''( Belar. Юнацтва Менск, Junactva Miеnsk)'' is a Belarusian professional ice hockey team that plays in the Belarusian Extraleague. They play their home games at Chizhovka-Arena, located in Minsk. Yunost is the ten-t ...
, the champion of
2017–18 IIHF Continental Cup The 2017–18 Continental Cup was the 21st edition of the IIHF Continental Cup, Europe's second-tier ice hockey club competition organised by International Ice Hockey Federation. The season started on 29 September 2017 and the final tournament wa ...
.


Group stage tie-breaking criteria

If two teams were tied in points after the group stage was finished, the teams precedence was decided by head-to-head games. If teams were tied after that, then the team which was ranked higher prior to the tournament took precedence. When comparing head-to-head results, the following criteria were applied: # more points in games against the other tied team # better goal difference in games against the other tied team # more goals scored against the other tied team # more goals scored in a single game against the other tied team # overtime wins against the other tied team # more goals scored in the two game winning shot competitions # higher position in the 2017–18 CHL club ranking


Group A


Group B


Group C


Group D


Group E


Group F


Group G


Group H


Playoffs


Qualified teams


Format

In each round except the final, the teams played two games and the aggregate score decided the team which advanced. As a rule, the first leg was hosted by the team who had the inferior record in the tournament to that point and the second leg was played on the home ice of the other team. If aggregate score was tied, a sudden death
overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...
followed. If the overtime is scoreless, the team who wins the game winning shot competition advanced. The final was played on the home ice of the team who had the better record in the tournament on 5 February 2019.


Bracket

The eight group winners and the eight second-placed teams advanced to the Round of 16. The teams were divided into two seeding groups and group winners were randomly drawn against runners-up. Teams who had faced each other in the group stage could not be drawn against each other in the round of 16. The draw took place in Helsinki, Finland on 19 October 2018. Note: #The teams listed on top of each tie were runners up in the group stage and play the first leg at home. The bottom team were group winners and play the second leg at home. The
Malmö Redhawks The Malmö Redhawks (colloquially referred to simply as Malmö or by past abbreviation MIF) are a Swedish professional ice hockey team based in Malmö which plays in the SHL, with Malmö Arena as the venue for home games. The history of the te ...
, however, ended up playing their first leg at home due to their arena being reserved on 20 November. #The order of the legs (which team starts at home) in the future rounds may be changed as the team with the best record should have the second game at home.


Round of 16


First Leg


Second Leg


Quarter-finals


First Leg


Second Leg


Semi-finals


First Leg


Second Leg


Final


Statistics


Scoring leaders

The following players led the league in points.


Leading goaltenders

The following goaltenders led the league in
save percentage Save percentage (often known by such symbols as SV%, SVS%, SVP, PCT) is a statistic in various Goal (sports), goal-scoring sports that track Save (goaltender), saves as a statistic. In ice hockey and lacrosse and association football, it is a sta ...
, provided that they have played at least 40% of their team's minutes.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hockey, Champions League, 2018-19
2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...
Champions A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional/provincial/state, national, continental and world championships, and ...