Off-season changes & summary
A total of 48 teams contested the Champions Hockey League in 2016/17, with the ‘expanded format’ taking to the ice for its second season. It would, however, be the last time the competition is this big, as before the season started a reduction to 32 teams and changes to qualification were announced.
Poland made its debut in the CHL thanks to a wildcard spot, with Comarch Cracovia debuting for the country in the competition and playing their home games in the city’s Tauron Arena and averaging 6666 spectators across their two home games. This expanded the number of leagues taking part to 13.
Again, 157 games were played over the season, which began on 16 August and culminated in the Final in Gothenburg on 7 February. Frölunda played their third straight Final, but first on home ice, and made history by winning back-to-back CHL titles after a dramatic 4-3 overtime win over Sparta Prague. History was also made by the Czechs as the first team from outside of the Nordic countries to make the Final.
Playing format
The 2016/17 Champions Hockey League was the same as the previous season – a Group Stage made up of 16 groups of three teams in each, followed by knock-out rounds of a home-and-away aggregate scoring series. The top two teams from each group advanced to the Round of 32, in which group winners were paired against second-place finishers. The Playoff Stage (Round of 32, Round of 16, Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals) were played in two-game, home-and-away knock-out series, where the winner on goals aggregate advanced. The Final was one game, played at the venue of the team with the best-accumulated Group Stage and Playoff record.
Group Stage Review I click here for Group Stage Standings 2016/17
There were shocks in the Group Stage as inaugural season champions Luleå crashed out, while Nitra beat Pilsen in both games to top their group. The Czechs lost three teams in the group stage (although Znojmo represented the EBEL), while Germany again struggled as half of their teams left the competition early. Of the C-license teams, Yunost Minsk made history by becoming the first Belarusian team to make it past the group phase, while Košice and Nitra both kept Slovak hopes alive by going through. There was also history for Switzerland, which saw all six of its teams make the knockout stage for the first time, while Norway was left without a playoff team for the first time.
Playoff Review I click here for Playoff Tree 2016/17
Arguably the biggest headline of the Round of 32 was Vítkovice’s total whitewash of Nitra 12-0 on aggregate, including a 7-0 win in the first leg. Elsewhere, Frölunda struggled on the road, losing in Minsk to a Yunost team that would finish the CHL unbeaten at home despite eventually going out on aggregate. Sweden lost Färjestad, Djurgården, and Skellefteå at this stage, while Switzerland saw 4 teams go through. Košice were also eliminated, meaning the Wild Card entries’ dreams ended after this round.
Having previously been dominated by Scandinavian teams, there was a more Central European flavour to the Round of 16 this season with 4 Swiss and 3 Czech teams added to the mix. The Czechs were guaranteed one Quarter-Finalist with Vítkovice and Liberec playing each other (the former eventually winning in OT on home ice to advance), while Sparta Prague pulled off one of the great CHL comebacks with a 5-0 win in Jönköping to overturn HV71’s 4-2 lead from the first leg.
The Round of 16 again saw Eisbären Berlin as the only German side remaining, and for the second straight year, the Polar Bears were sent home at this stage – this time coming up against a rampant Frölunda, who won 6-1 in the German capital before completing the job on home ice. Finnish teams had a bit of a shocker, with all four (KalPa, HIFK, JYP, & SaiPa) going out at this stage to leave the country without a team in the Quarter-Finals for the first time.
With the competition down to the last eight, it was notable how only three were from Scandinavia – and all Sweden. Frölunda were paired with Linköping, meaning one SHL team would advance further, and it was the Gothenburg who destroyed their domestic counterparts 9-2 overall. Fribourg made light work of Vítkovice, while Växjö narrowly overcame the ZSC Lions 3-2 on home ice after a goalless draw in Zurich a week before. Sparta kept the Czech fight alive with a commanding 5-2 defeat of SC Bern.
The Semi-Finals saw Frölunda ease past Fribourg, who had somehow got to the last four of European competition despite being among the worst teams in their own league. On the other side of the draw, Sparta came back from Växjö 2-1 ahead and in front of a crowd of over 12,000 at O2 Arena defeated the Lakers 4-0 to make the Final.
A sellout crowd of just over 6,000 – including some 300 fans from Prague – witnessed the best CHL Final so far at the Frölundaborg Isstadion, as Sparta took the game to the defending champions and twice lead in the opening period. Frölunda were a goal ahead going into the third, but a Spartan comeback forced the game into overtime. However, it just 1:27 of the extra period before Niklas Lasu skated through the visitors’ defence to net the golden goal, and spark wild scenes as Frölunda were able to celebrate their second CHL title but first on home ice.