Teams 44 Matches played 161 | ||
 | ||
Dates 21 August 2014 – 3 February 2015 Champions Luleå Hockey (1st title) Third place Oulun Kärpät Skellefteå AIK | ||
The 2014–15 Champions Hockey League was the first season of the Champions Hockey League, a European ice hockey tournament launched by 26 founding clubs, six leagues and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).
Contents
- Team allocation
- Team license
- Teams
- Round and draw dates
- Group stage
- Ranking of second placed teams
- Playoffs
- Bracket
- Eighth finals
- Quarter finals
- Semi finals
- Final
- Leading scorers
- Leading goaltenders
- Prize money
- References
The regulation round began on 21 August 2014 and ended on 8 October 2014. The playoffs began on 4 November 2014 and ended with the Champions Hockey League Final on 3 February 2015. Luleå Hockey defeated Frölunda HC 4–2 to win the first edition of Champions Hockey League.
On 9 December 2013, the IIHF officially announced that they had launched the Champions Hockey League tournament, starting in the 2014–15 season. The season's format was revealed on 20 December 2013, during the playoffs of the 2013 European Trophy.
Team allocation
A total of 44 teams from eleven different European first-tier leagues participated in the 2014–15 Champions Hockey League. The teams were decided with regards to different licenses for the founding teams, leagues and wildcards.
Team license
The participating teams were decided with regards to different licenses for founding teams, league teams (from founding leagues) and other wildcard teams.
- National champion
- Regular season winner
- Runner-up, regular season
- Play-off finalist
- Best placed semifinal loser
- Worst placed semifinal loser
Teams
A full list of the teams participating in the inaugural season and how they qualified was presented on 10 May 2014.
Round and draw dates
The schedule of the competition is as follows.
Group stage
The group stage draw took place on 21 May 2014 in Minsk, Belarus, and the teams were assigned to eleven groups from A to K. The 44 teams were allocated into four pots based on their positions in their national leagues 2014, with the top seeded teams being placed in Pot 1 and the lower ranked teams in Pot 2, Pot 3 and the lowest ranked teams in Pot 4. They were drawn into eleven groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format, giving six games per team. In total, 132 games were played in the group stage.
The schedule was released on 2 June 2014, with 30 of 44 teams playing their first game 21 August 2014, and the other teams playing their first game the following day. The match days were 21–22 August, 23–24 August, 4–5 September, 6–7 September, 23–24 September and 7–8 October 2014. All game times are local times.
The 11 group winners and the five best ranked runners-up qualified for the playoffs. The five best runners-up were determined by ranking all runners-up based on their amount of points and goal differential in their respective groups, explained more detailed in the detailed group stage article.
See the detailed group stage page for tiebreakers if two or more teams are equal on points.
Ranking of second-placed teams
See the detailed group stage page for tiebreakers if two or more teams are equal on points.
Playoffs
In the playoffs, the teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis with the team with the better standing after the group stage having the second game at home, except for the one-match final played at the venue of the team with the best competition track record leading up to the final.
The mechanism of the draw for playoffs are as follows:
Bracket
Note:
- The teams listed on top of each tie play first match at home and the bottom team plays second match at home.
Eighth-finals
The draw for the entire playoff (eighth-finals, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final) was held on 10 October 2014. The first legs were played on 4 November, and the second legs were played on 11 November 2014.
Quarter-finals
The first legs were played on 2 December, and the second legs were played on 9 December 2014.
Semi-finals
The first legs were played on 13 January, and the second legs were played on 20 January 2015.
Final
The final was played on 3 February 2015 at the venue of the team with the best competition track record leading up to the final.
Leading scorers
Rankings based upon points, and sorted by goals.
Leading goaltenders
Goalkeepers with 40% or more of their team's total minutes, ranked by save percentage.
Prize money
The 44 teams will compete for a grand total of 1.5 million euros. However, the money distribution has not been announced.