Group A
Latvia’s HK Mogo makes the short trip to Lithuania as red-hot favourite to advance to the second round.
Last season, this team made it all the way from the first round to the final, eventually finishing fifth in Nottingham.
And the Riga-based club is in fine form domestically, leading the Latvian championship with eight wins and one OT loss in nine games so far. Veteran Kaspars Daugavins has played a big role: 10 points in 8 games from a man with a wealth of Olympic, World Championship and NHL experience. But two new faces on the team are leading the scoring. Centre Kristaps Skrastins, 24, and 26-year-old winger Rikards Grinbergs are tied on 13 points. Both returned home in the summer from the USA and France respectively.
Host club Energija Elektrenai knows all about Mogo: the Lithuanians compete in the Latvian league as well as their domestic championship.
But while Mogo leads the way, Energija is currently at the foot of the standings, albeit having played just four games when most rivals have eight or more. American goalie Connor Androlewicz, who moved to Lithuania after graduating Stonehill College, could be a key player: if he performs strongly, it gives a chance for the likes of Tadas Kumeliauskas – three seasons with TPS in the Liiga, three more in Kazakhstan with Temirtau, six in Elektrenai – to turn their experience into a shot at repeating last year’s progress in this competition.
Sokil Kyiv has drafted reinforcements into its roster for the weekend. Three players are coming on loan from Poland’s Sanok Sokol, the Kyiv club’s team in the Polish championship. They are Ukrainian international defender Ivan Sysak, Latvian goalie Eriks Vitols and Swedish-born defender Tymon Pyrih. In addition, Ilia Kryklya returns to Sokil on loan after moving to Odesa in the summer. Head coach Oleh Shafarenko was part of the coaching staff that helped Ukraine earn promotion back to the World Championship elite pool, and will be hoping to defy the odds by taking Sokil beyond the first round in the Continental Cup for the first time.
The fourth team in the group, Spain’s CH Jaca, is without long-serving captain Alejandro Carbonell, who retired in the summer. But Jaime Capillas and Adrian Torralba continue to lead the team in scoring with 12 points between them after Jaca won its first three games of the season.
Schedule of IIHF Continental Cup 2027 First Round, Group A
Friday, Oct. 16
Sokil vs Jaca (1500)
Energija vs Mogo (1900)
Saturday, Oct.17
Mogo vs Jaca (1300)
Sokil vs Energija (1700)
Sunday, Oct. 18
Mogo vs Sokil (1300)
Jaca vs Energija (1700)
The group winner will advance to the second round and contest Group C against GKS Katowice (POL), Belfast Giants (GBR) and host Rouen Dragons (FRA).
Group B
Estonia is set to host a battle between two rivals from the Erste Liga as Romania’s Corona Brasov and Hungary’s BJA HC go head-to-head. The pair are first and third in the cross-border competition, having played nine games each.There isn’t much to choose between them head-to-head either: on Oct. 8 they met in Brasov, with the home team edging a 5-4 OT verdict. Corona has the Erste Liga’s top scorer, David Levin, with 15 (8+7) from nine games; BJA HC’s Gergo Nagy is one point behind him with 14 (6+8).
And both teams have World Championship experience, boosted by Hungary’s recent successful bids to stay in the top division. Krisztian Nagy of BJAC played his fourth Worlds last summer and has 22 games for 3 (1+2) points. Gergo Nagy, Bence Szabo and Tamas Pozsgai also played in previous Hungarian campaigns. Meanwhile, Brasov can call upon Daniel Koger and Akos Mihaly, both of whom have represented the Magyars on the world stage.
Host team Viru Sputnik, based in Kohtla-Jarve, Estonia, is back in the Continental Cup for the first time since 2010-11 after winning last season’s Estonian championship. The team has started well this time, victorious in its opening two games to lead the fledgling standings. Maksim Turovski had an impressive 34 points in 16 regular season games last year and will spearhead the Estonian offence here, while Sergei Andrejev has cemented his position as first-choice goalie after understudying Rostislav Efremov in the latter half of last season.
KHL Zagreb completes the group. The Croatians have European history dating back to the early 1990s and the old European Cup. But the only time they have progressed in Continental Cup play was back in 2003. A confident performance in the first round counted for little in the end: the team could not raise a roster to compete in round two and had to forfeit its place. Three years ago, when Zagreb last played in this competition, it had a 5-3 win over Skautafelag Reykjavik of Iceland, but lost to Estonia’s HC Panter and Lithuania’s Kaunas City.
Schedule of IIHF Continental Cup 2027 First Round, Group B
Friday, Oct. 16
KHL Zagreb vs Corona Brasov (15:30)
BJA HC vs Viru Sputnik (19:00)
Saturday, Oct.17
BJA HC vs KHL Zagreb (15:30)
Corona Brasov vs Viru Sputnik (19:00)
Sunday, Oct. 18
Corona Brasov vs BJA HC (15:30)
Viru Sputnik vs KHL Zagreb (19:00)
The group winner will advance to the second round and contest Group D against Nomad (KAZ), Herlev Eagles (DEN) and host Asiago (ITA).