Release from 24.05.2023

CHL opponents of the ICE teams are fixed

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The draw for the 2023/24 Champions Hockey League season took place in Finland on Wednesday afternoon. The group stage was replaced by a CHL regular season. Thus, the three participants of the win2day ICE Hockey League - EC Red Bull Salzburg, HCB Südtirol Alperia and HC TIWAG Innsbruck - can already look forward to six attractive opponents each in the first phase.

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The opponents of EC Red Bull Salzburg
As champions of the win2day ICE Hockey League, EC Red Bull Salzburg was drawn from lot pot A and was assigned two opponents each from lot pots B, C and D in the CHL regular season.

Home games:
ERC Ingolstadt, Germany
Lahti Pelicans, Finland
Stavanger Oilers, Norway

Away games:
Skellefteå AIK, Sweden
Adler Mannheim, Germany
Belfast Giants, Northern Ireland

The opponents of HCB Südtirol Alperia
HCB Südtirol Alperia was drawn as the winner of the ICE basic round from lottery pot B and received two opponents each from lottery pots A, C and D:

Home games:
Ilves Tampere, Finland
Lahti Pelicans, Finland
Stavanger Oilers, Norway

Away games:
Genève-Servette, Switzerland
Adler Mannheim, Germany
Belfast Giants, Northern Ireland

The opponents of HC TIWAG Innsbruck
HC TIWAG Innsbruck was drawn from lottery pot C as third of the ICE basic round and got two opponents each from lottery pots A, B and D:

Home games:
Genève-Servette, Switzerland
Skellefteå AIK, Sweden
Belfast Giants, Northern Ireland

Away games:
Red Bull Munich, Germany
EHC Biel Bienne, Switzerland
Aalborg Pirates, Denmark

New CHL mode

The Champions Hockey League season will be run using a new format with 24 participating teams. The basic structure of a regular season (formerly group stage) followed by playoffs will be retained, with two important changes:

Teams will play six different opponents during the regular season instead of only three (teams will play each other only once)
Teams will be ranked from 1 to 24 overall, instead of in groups.

The main reason for these changes is to make the competition more fair, as teams will have to prove themselves against a wider range of opponents, rather than just three teams. Once all Regular Season matches have been played, teams ranked 1-16 will advance to the playoffs, where they will be automatically assigned opponents based on their position in the standings - a playoff draw as in the past is no longer necessary.