ZURICH – 11 teams are looking forward to the start of Champions Hockey League in October, while three additional squads are preparing for a showdown in Nuremberg, Germany, for the 12th spot in Europe’s new club competition.

The teams that will compete for the final CHL spot are HC Kosice, SC Bern and the Sinupret Ice Tigers Nuremberg, who won the regular season in Slovakia, Switzerland and Germany, respectively.

The first puck will be dropped on Friday, September 12th, when the Ice Tigers play SC Bern on home ice at 19:30. Bern then faces Kosice on Saturday at 18:30, while Kosice and the Ice Tigers close out the round-robin event on Sunday at 18:30. Click here for ticket information (in German).

The winner will be qualified into Group B of the 2008-2009 Champions Hockey League, which includes Swedish champion HV71 Jönköping and Finland’s regular season winner Espoo Blues.

All three teams submitted their 30-man rosters with virtually no changes for Nuremburg and Kosice from their pre-season rosters.  

SC Bern had a handful of transfers, signing defenceman Richard Jackman (Leksands IF) and forward Lee Goren (Färjestad Karlstad). Both will only play the games in Nuremberg in the SC Bern jersey and then return to Sweden for the regular season. Bern also signed Simon Züger as third goalkeeper for the qualification.

To fill out the 30-man roster, Bern also added four players from their B League affiliate, Young Sprinters Neuchâtel, with defencemen Daniel Boss and Oliver Beer, and Czech forwards Radek Dlouhy and Pavel Vostrak. Early in the Swiss season, Bern tops the standings after 5-2 wins over EHC Biel/Bienne and reigning champion ZSC Lions Zurich.

Kosice signed Jan Tabacek from Sparta Prague one month ago, and Jan Homer will play the qualification on loan before returning to Dukla Trencin. Kosice has two wins in its first two games with victories over MHK Kezmarok, 7-1, and reigning champion Slovan Bratislava, 5-2.

The Ice Tigers re-activated former captain Christian Laflamme, and signed Robert Francz, who was on a try-out. The Bavarians lost their first two games in 4-2 defeats against Frankfurt and champion Eisbären Berlin.

From the rosters below, each club has to select 20 skaters and two goalkeepers at the tournament directorate meeting on Thursday. They are also allowed to register an emergency goalkeeper.