23/06/2026
International ice hockey returns to Asiago!
Top-level international club ice hockey is returning to Asiago! From November 13 to 15, the Odegar Ice Stadium will host one of the two semifinal groups of the 2026/2027 Continental Cup, the European competition organised by the IIHF.
Hockey Club Asiago will have the honour of hosting a three-day event that will bring some of the most interesting teams in European ice hockey to the Asiago Plateau. Joining the Giallorossi in Group D will be Kazakhstan's Nomad Astana, Denmark's Herlev Eagles and a fourth team that will emerge from Round 1 of the competition.
The race to dethrone reigning champions Nottingham Panthers is therefore about to begin, with Hockey Club Asiago aiming to secure what would be the fifth appearance in the final stage of the competition in the club's history.
The format
The Continental Cup will get underway on the weekend of October 16–18 with Round 1. Group A will feature HK Mogo (Latvia), Sokil Kyiv (Ukraine), Energija Elektrenai (Lithuania) and Club Hielo Jaca (Spain), while Group B will see Corona Brasov (Romania), BJA HC (Hungary), KHL Sisak (Croatia) and Estonia's Viru Sputnik, who will host the group, competing against each other. The fourth team to complete Asiago's group will come from this latter group.
The two semifinal tournaments will take place from November 13 to 15. Alongside Group D, hosted in Asiago, the other semifinal group will feature Belfast Giants, GKS Katowice and Rouen Dragons, with the French club hosting the event.
The final stage will take place from January 14 to 17 at a venue yet to be announced. Since last season, the traditional four-team Superfinal has been replaced by a six-team Final Round, with the top three teams from each semifinal group advancing to the final stage.
Our group
Although finishing among the top three teams appears to be the minimum objective on paper, the quality of the opposition means that nothing can be taken for granted.
Among the participating teams, Nomad Astana stand out as arguably the strongest contenders in the group. The Kazakh club, winners of the Continental Cup in the 2023/2024 season, serve as the farm team of KHL organisation Barys Astana. Last season, Nomad claimed the third national championship title in their history, confirming their status as one of the strongest teams in Kazakh ice hockey thanks to a well-balanced combination of promising young talents and experienced players.
The Herlev Eagles will also be a team to watch. The Danish club enter the European competition during a period of transition following the departure of Swedish head coach Martin Gudmundsson, whose three-year tenure was marked by steady progress and culminated in a national championship final defeat against the Herning Blue Fox. He has been replaced by fellow Swede Johan Åkerman, who previously coached in Italy with Appiano during the 2021/2022 season.
Despite the coaching change, Herlev remain an extremely competitive side, benefiting from the progress made by Danish ice hockey in recent years and boasting several high-quality players. Among them is 25-year-old Danish-Latvian forward Victor Cubars, who finished last season as the league's leading scorer with 32 goals and 36 assists.
Our history
Next November will mark Hockey Club Asiago's tenth appearance in the Continental Cup, a competition that has provided some of the most memorable European moments in the club's history.
Asiago's most recent appearance came in the 2022/2023 season, when the team won its group at the Odegar and went on to qualify from the semifinal tournament held in Nitra, Slovakia, securing a place in the Final Round in Angers.
It will also be the seventh time the club has hosted a group stage of the competition. The most recent occasion was during that same 2022/2023 campaign, when the Giallorossi defeated Acroni Jesenice, Buz Adam Istanbul and HK Vojvodina in front of their home supporters.
The Continental Cup made its debut at the Odegar in the 2001/2002 season, when Asiago welcomed a highly competitive group featuring Keramin Minsk, HC Lugano and Milano Vipers, marking the beginning of a long European tradition that continues to this day.
The objective now is to secure a fifth appearance in the Continental Cup's final stage, following those achieved in the 2011/2012, 2013/2014, 2015/2016 and 2022/2023 seasons. It would be a prestigious achievement, once again earned on the Asiago Plateau in front of the passionate Giallorossi supporters.
Beyond the sporting prestige of the event, the return of the Continental Cup also represents an important opportunity for the entire local area. For three days, the Odegar will once again become a stage for top-level European ice hockey, welcoming teams, officials and supporters from several countries and bringing back to the Asiago Plateau the international atmosphere that has accompanied some of the finest moments in the club's history.
This event further confirms Hockey Club Asiago's standing among the established names in European ice hockey and will offer the Giallorossi faithful another opportunity to experience the excitement of a major European challenge on home ice.
Gallery
Foto: Crediti Foto: hcbarys.kz e metalligaen.dk