The 2021–22 Champions Hockey League was the seventh season of the Champions Hockey League, a European ice hockey tournament. The tournament was competed by 32 teams, with qualification being 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 to be represented by one team each.
Swedish team Rögle BK won their first Champions Hockey League title, defeating Finnish team Tappara 2–1 in the final. This made Rögle BK the sixth Swedish side to win the European Trophy and the first team in the history of the tournament to win the title in its first season. The title holders Frölunda HC were defeated by Rögle BK in the semi-finals with the total score 4–8.
American right winger Ryan Lasch from Swedish team Frölunda HC became the top scorer for the fourth time, scoring 18 points.
Team allocation A total of 32 teams from different European first-tier leagues participated in the 2021–22 Champions Hockey League. Besides the Continental Cup champions, 24 teams from the six founding leagues, as well as the national champions from Norway, Denmark, France, Belarus, the United Kingdom, Poland and Ukraine could qualify. The qualification for these places was set out in the rules as follows:
CHL champions National league champions (play-off winners) Regular season winners Regular season runners-up Regular season third-placed team Regular season fourth-placed team Regular season fifth-placed team
For the ICE Hockey League teams were picked in this order: League champions Regular season winners Pick Round winners Pick Round runners-up Losing playoff finalists
For the Deutsche Eishockey Liga teams were picked in this order: League champions North / South group winners with higher PPG North / South group winners with lower PPG North / South group runners-up with higher PPG North / South group runners-up with lower PPG
Teams Team City/Area League Qualification Participation Previous best Frölunda HC Gothenburg Swedish Hockey League 2020 CHL winners 7th Champion Växjö Lakers Växjö Swedish Hockey League Play-off champion 6th Final Rögle BK Ängelholm Swedish Hockey League Regular season runners-up 1st First appearance Leksands IF Leksand Swedish Hockey League Regular season third 1st First appearance Skellefteå AIK Skellefteå Swedish Hockey League Regular season fourth 6th Semi-finals EV Zug Zug National League Play-off champion 7th Quarter-finals HC Lugano Lugano National League Regular season runners-up 3rd Round of 16 HC Fribourg-Gottéron Fribourg National League Regular season third 4rd Semi-finals Lausanne HC Lausanne National League Regular season fourth 2nd Quarter-finals ZSC Lions Zürich National League Regular season fifth 6th Quarter-finals Eisbären Berlin Berlin Deutsche Eishockey Liga Play-off champion 5th Round of 16 Adler Mannheim Mannheim Deutsche Eishockey Liga South group winners 6th Round of 16 EHC Red Bull München Munich Deutsche Eishockey Liga South group runners-up 6th Final Fischtown Pinguins Bremerhaven Deutsche Eishockey Liga North group runners-up 1st First appearance Lukko Rauma Liiga Play-off champion 4th Semi-finals HIFK Helsinki Liiga Regular season runners-up 6th Quarter-finals TPS Turku Liiga Regular season third 6th Quarter-finals Tappara Tampere Liiga Regular season fourth 7th Round of 16 Oceláři Třinec Třinec Czech Extraliga Play-off champion 6th Semi-finals HC Sparta Praha Prague Czech Extraliga Regular season winners 4th Final BK Mladá Boleslav Mladá Boleslav Czech Extraliga Regular season third 2nd Group stage EC KAC Klagenfurt ICE Hockey League Play-off champion 4th Group stage HC Bolzano Bolzano ICE Hockey League Regular season winners 3rd Round of 16 Red Bull Salzburg Salzburg ICE Hockey League Higher ranked semi-finalists 6th Semi-finals Cardiff Devils Cardiff Elite Ice Hockey League 2019–20 regular season winners 4th Group stage Dragons de Rouen Rouen Ligue Magnus Regular season winners 3rd Round of 16 Frisk Asker Ishockey Asker Eliteserien Regular season winners 2nd Group stage JKH GKS Jastrzębie Jastrzębie-Zdrój Polska Hokej Liga Play-off champion 1st First appearance Rungsted Ishockey Rungsted Metal Ligaen Play-off champion 2nd Group stage SønderjyskE Ishockey Vojens Metal Ligaen 2019–20 Continental Cup winner 3rd Group stage HC Donbass Donetsk Ukrainian Hockey League Wild card 1st First appearance Slovan Bratislava Bratislava Tipos extraliga Wild card 1st First appearance
Round and draw dates The schedule of the competition is as follows. PhaseRoundDraw dateFirst legSecond legGroup stageMatchday 1Groups A-F19 May 202126–27 August 2021Groups G-H9–10 September 2021Matchday 2Groups A-F28–29 August 2021Groups G-H11–12 September 2021Matchday 32–3 September 2021Matchday 44–5 September 2021Matchday 55–6 October 2021Matchday 612–13 October 2021PlayoffRound of 1615 October 202116–17 November 202123–24 November 2021Quarter-finals7–8 December 202114 December 2021Semi-finals4–5 January 202211–12 January 2022Final1 March 2022
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 six games. The best two teams qualified to the round of 16.
The draw of the group stage took place on 19 May 2021.
Pots Due to a scheduling conflict caused by the 2022 Winter Olympics final qualification tournament being held on 26–29 August 2021, eight teams from countries participating in the Olympic qualification (Austria, Denmark, France, Italy, Norway, Poland, Ukraine) were allocated into the pot 5 and drawn into two separate groups of four which did not play their games on the specified dates. There was no league protection for the teams from these two groups. The other 24 teams (from five remaining founding leagues as well as teams from Belarus and the United Kingdom as top two challenger leagues and 2019–20 IIHF Continental Cup winners SønderjyskE Ishockey) were allocated into four pots and drawn by the standard procedure into six groups of four.
Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4Pot 5 Frölunda HC Växjö Lakers EV Zug Eisbären Berlin Lukko Oceláři Třinec
Rögle BK HC Lugano Adler Mannheim HIFK HC Sparta Praha Leksands IF
HC Fribourg-Gottéron EHC Red Bull München TPS BK Mladá Boleslav Skellefteå AIK Lausanne HC
Fischtown Pinguins Tappara ZSC Lions HC Yunost Minsk Cardiff Devils SønderjyskE Ishockey
EC KAC HC Bolzano Red Bull Salzburg Dragons de Rouen Frisk Asker Ishockey JKH GKS Jastrzębie Rungsted Ishockey HC Donbass
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Group stage tie-breaking criteria Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win in regulation time, 2 points for a win in overtime, 1 point for a loss in overtime, 0 points for a loss in regulation time). If two or more teams were tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (see 8.4.4. Tie breaking formula group stage standings): Points in head-to-head matches among the tied teams; Goal difference in head-to-head matches among the tied teams; Goals scored in head-to-head matches among the tied teams; The higher number of goals in one of the matches among the tied teams; The most goals in the two game winning shot series; If more than two teams are tied, head-to-head criteria 1, 2 and 3 are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams; If more than two teams are tied, and after applying head-to-head criteria 1, 2 and 3, a subset of teams are still tied, goal difference and goals scored then the results between each of the three teams and the closest best-ranked team outside the subset was applied; best-ranked team outside the sub-group was applied; The higher position in the 2019–20 Champions Hockey League club ranking; Goal difference in all group matches; Goals scored in all group matches; Regulation time wins in all group matches; Overtime wins in all group matches; Overtime losses in all group matches.
Playoffs Qualified teams The knockout phase involves the 16 teams which qualify as winners and runners-up of each of the eight groups in the group stage.
GroupWinners(seeded in round of 16 draw)Runners-up(unseeded in round of 16 draw)A HC Sparta Praha Växjö LakersB Frölunda HC ZSC LionsC Lukko Adler MannheimD Rögle BK EHC Red Bull MünchenE Tappara Skellefteå AIKF HC Fribourg-Gottéron Leksands IFG EC KAC Dragons de RouenH Red Bull Salzburg HC Bolzano
Format In each round except the final, the teams played two games and the aggregate score decided which team advanced. As a rule, the first leg was hosted by the team who had the inferior record in the tournament with the second leg being played on the home ice of the other team. If aggregate score was tied, a sudden death overtime followed. If the overtime was scoreless, the team who won the shoot out competition advanced.
The final was played on the home ice of the team who had the better record in the tournament.
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.
Round of 16 The draw for the entire playoff was held on 15 October 2021 in Zürich. The first legs were played on 16 and 17 November with return legs played on 23 and 24 November 2021.
First Leg
Second Leg
Quarter-finals First legs were played on 7 December, return legs were played on 14 December 2021.
First Leg
Second Leg
Semi-finals First legs were played on 4 January, return legs were played on 11 January and 1 February 2022.
First Leg
Second Leg
Final
Statistics Scoring leaders The following players are leading the league in points.
Player Team Frölunda HC 12 4 14 18 2 +5 0 2 0 23 17.39% Red Bull München 10 8 6 14 0 +9 2 0 0 30 26.67% Rögle BK 13 5 9 14 8 +1 0 3 1 21 23.81% Red Bull München 10 3 10 13 2 +11 1 2 0 17 17.65% Rögle BK 11 5 8 13 0 +5 2 3 0 26 19.23% Frölunda HC 12 7 6 13 2 0 2 2 2 23 30.43% Tappara 12 2 11 13 0 +5 1 2 0 20 10.00% Rögle BK 13 2 11 13 4 +2 0 1 0 19 10.53% Red Bull München 11 6 6 12 16 +9 1 3 0 24 25.00% Rögle BK 12 3 9 12 14 +8 1 1 0 12 25.00%
Leading goaltenders The following goaltenders are leading the league in save percentage, provided that they have played at least 40% of their team's minutes.
Player Team HC Fribourg-Gottéron 5 4 0 126 4 96,92% 0,94 2 255 Lukko 5 3 2 111 6 94,87% 1,18 1 305 HC Sparta Praha 6 4 1 159 9 94,64% 1,58 0 357 Dragons de Rouen 10 4 5 388 22 94,63% 2,21 1 597 HC Bolzano 4 3 1 145 9 94,16% 2,25 0 240
Notes
References