2018–19 Champions Hockey League


The 2018–19 Champions Hockey League was the fifth season of the Champions Hockey League, a European ice hockey 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, 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 won their third Champions Hockey League title, defeating Red Bull München, the first German team to reach the final, 3–1 at the Scandinavium in Gothenburg.

Team allocation

A total of 32 teams from different European 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, Great Britain and Poland qualified.
The qualification for these places was set out in the rules as follows:
  1. National league champion
  2. Regular season winners
  3. Regular season runner-up
  4. Losing play-off finalist
  5. Higher regular season ranked losing semi-finalist
  6. Lower regular season ranked losing semi-finalist
  7. Third placed team in regular season
  8. Fourth placed team in regular season
  9. 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.
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, the champion of 2017–18 IIHF Continental Cup.

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 will take precedence. When comparing head-to-head results, the following criteria was applied:
  1. more points in games against the other tied team
  2. better goal difference in games against the other tied team
  3. more goals scored against the other tied team
  4. more goals scored in a single game against the other tied team
  5. overtime wins against the other tied team
  6. more goals scored in the two game winning shot competitions
  7. higher position in the 2016/17 CHL club ranking
Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4

JYP

Växjö Lakers

Kärpät

Kometa Brno

ZSC Lions

Red Bull München

HC Bolzano

Djurgårdens IF
TPS

HC Plzeň

SC Bern

Eisbären Berlin

Vienna Capitals

Skellefteå AIK

Tappara

Mountfield HK
EV Zug

Nürnberg Ice Tigers

Red Bull Salzburg

Malmö Redhawks

HIFK

Oceláři Třinec

HC Lugano

Frölunda HC
HC '05 Banská Bystrica

Neman Grodno

Storhamar Ishockey

Cardiff Devils

Aalborg Pirates

Dragons de Rouen

GKS Tychy

Yunost Minsk

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Playoffs

Qualified teams

GroupWinners 'Runners-up
A Frölunda HC ' ZSC Lions
B Malmö Redhawks ' Red Bull München
C Skellefteå AIK ' HC Bolzano
D EV Zug ' Kometa Brno
E Tappara ' Storhamar
F Kärpät ' Dragons de Rouen
G Red Bull Salzburg ' SC Bern
H HC Plzeň HC Lugano

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 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 8 group winners and the 8 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 couldn't be drawn against each other in the round of 16. The draw took place in Helsinki, Finland on 19 October 2018.
Note:
  1. 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, however, ended up playing their first leg at home due to their arena being reserved on 20 November.
  2. The order of the legs in the future rounds may be changed as the team with the best record should have the second game at home.

    Final

Statistics

Scoring leaders

The following players led the league in points.
PlayerTeam
Frölunda HC13517226+42302619.23%
Frölunda HC136101635+10403616.67%
Red Bull München112121424+6010267.69%
Kärpät985132+41422532.00%
HC Plzeň1085138+112203821.05%
Red Bull München9931218+53212931.03%
Tappara7210122+40001118.18%
Skellefteå AIK1074110+61204814.58%
HC Plzeň1038110–21201816.67%
Vienna Capitals673102901402725.93%

Leading goaltenders

The following goaltenders led the league in save percentage, provided that they have played at least 40% of their team's minutes.
PlayerTeam
Malmö Redhawks422108793.91%1.750240
Red Bull Salzburg10432641993.29%1.900600
Dragons de Rouen8342902193.25%2.651475
Frölunda HC632122993.13%1.690319
SC Bern8532031593.12%1.861483