Vlci Žilina is a professional Slovak

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 ...

club based in

Žilina Žilina (; ; ; ; Names of European cities in different languages: U-Z#Z, names in other languages) is a city in north-western Slovakia, around from the capital Bratislava, close to both the Czech and Polish borders. It is the List of cities ...

. They currently play in the

Slovak Extraliga The Slovak Extraliga, known as the Tipsport liga since the 2025–26 season for sponsorship reasons, is the highest-level ice hockey league in Slovakia. From 2018–19 to 2020–21, the league included one or two teams from Hungary. Teams fro ...

. The club has won the Slovak league championship in 2006. The team is nicknamed ''Vlci'', it means Wolves in English.

History

The club was founded on 25 January 1925 as ŠK Žilina. They played first official game against Slávia Banská Bystrica on 16 December 1928. Žilina was beaten 0–3. They competed in the Championship of Central Slovakia before and during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In the 1931–32 season they won this championship. After WW II and restored

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

they played in the

Czechoslovak Extraliga The Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League was the elite ice hockey league in Czechoslovakia from 1936 until 1993, when the country split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Slovak Extraliga and Czech Extraliga formed from the split. History ...

two seasons. Žilina finished last in the 1951–52 season and the 1952–53 season. They won the 1964–65 1. SNHL season and promoted to the qualification for the Czechoslovak Extraliga. In the qualification round they lost all games and did not promote. After dissolution of Czechoslovakia they were included to the Slovak 1.Liga, second level of Slovak hockey. Žilina won the 2000–01 Slovak 1.Liga season and promoted to the

first time. In the 2005–06 season they reached the most remarkable success. Žilina won the Slovak Extraliga first time after beating

HK Poprad HK Poprad is a professional ice hockey team in the Slovak Extraliga, the top ice hockey league in Slovakia. It plays its games in Poprad, Slovakia. The squad's greatest successes include 2nd place in the Slovak Extraliga in 2006, 2011 and 2021. Th ...

4–3 in the final series. Michal Hreus was the top scorer of Žilina in the

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

, recording 15

points A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...

(7G+8A). Through the victory in Extraliga they gained an option to play with the best European ice hockey teams in the

IIHF European Champions Cup The IIHF European Champions Cup (ECC) was an annual event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), which took place during a long weekend in early January. The winner was considered the official club champion of Europe by t ...

. Žilina was defeated 0–7 by HPK in first game but then won 4–2 against

HC Sparta Praha Hockey Club Sparta Praha, commonly known as HC Sparta Prague, is a Prague-based Czech professional ice hockey team playing in the Czech Extraliga. The club has won four Czech championships (most recently in 2007) and four Czechoslovak champio ...

and finished second in the Ragulin division. In the 2018–19 season, Žilina were relegated to the Slovak 1. Liga after losing a best-of-seven relegation playoff to

HK Dukla Michalovce HK Dukla Michalovce is a professional ice hockey team playing in the Tipsport Liga (hockey), Slovak Extraliga, the top level of ice hockey in the country. They play in the city of Michalovce, Slovakia at Michalovce Ice Stadium. History The club wa ...

. Club's 100-percent shareholders, the City of

, had sold the shares to a private company Lupiza in May 2020. The new owners had intended to rename the club to ''HK Vlci Žilina''.

Current roster

As of 8 December 2024.

Honours

Domestic

* Winners (1): 2005–06 * 3rd place (2): 2016–17, 2024–25 Slovak 1. Liga * Winners (3): 2000–01, 2021–22, 2023–24 * Runners-up (3): 1998–99,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Slovak Hockey League * 3rd place (1): 1940–41 1st. Slovak National Hockey League * Winners (1): 1964–65 * 3rd place (2): 1965–66, 1967–68

Pre-season

Rona Cup * Winners (1): 2006

References

External links

Official club website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mshk Zilina Žilina Zilina, MsHK Zilina, MsHK Ice hockey clubs established in 1925 1925 establishments in Czechoslovakia Sport in Žilina Region