Continental Cup

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For the curling tournament see Continental Cup of Curling

The Continental Cup is an ice hockey tournament for European clubs, begun in 1997 after the discontinuing of the European Cup. It was intended for teams from countries without representatives in the European Hockey League, with participating teams chosen by the countries' respective ice hockey associations.

[edit] Format

The competition began in 1997-98 with 42 clubs from 26 countries, which expanded to 48 teams for the next two years. The tournament was played in seeded rounds of qualifying groups. There were three rounds of qualifiying groups, with winners of qualifiying groups progressing to the next round. The three winners of the third round groups entered the semifinals, along with the host club. The first round was held in September, the second in October, the third in November and the finals in December.

In the 2000-01 season, with the European Hockey League on hiatus, the Continental Cup became the de facto European club championship. The format remained the same, with 36 teams from 27 countries.

With the beginning of the IIHF European Champions Cup from 2004-05, participants included national champions of countries not in the Super Six (the top six European nations according to the IIHF world ranking) as well as teams from Super Six leagues, which included HC Dynamo Moscow, HKm Zvolen and the Nottingham Panthers.

[edit] Winners

Season	Winner	Host city
1997-98	HC Košice	Tampere, Finland
1998-99	HC Ambri-Piotta	Košice, Slovakia
1999-00	HC Ambri-Piotta	Berlin, Germany
2000-01	ZSC Lions	Zurich, Switzerland
2001-02	ZSC Lions
2002-03	Jokerit	Zurich, Switzerland
2003-04	Slovan Bratislava
2004-05	HKm Zvolen	Székesfehérvár, Hungary
2005-06	HC Lada Togliatti	Székesfehérvár, Hungary