Twenty-four teams from 12 countries began the 2025-26 Champions Hockey League season, but only four teams remain in the fight to be crowned European club champion. This week and next, Frolunda Gothenburg, Lulea Hockey and Brynas Gavle, all from Sweden, and EV Zug from Switzerland, will compete in the semi-finals. After the two-game series, the winners on aggregate score will advance to the final.
The four remaining teams include two previous CHL champions and several notable players, including some who have been selected to participate in the upcoming Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy.
(3) Frolunda Gothenburg SWE vs (10) Brynas Gavle SWE
This all-Swedish matchup features two of last year's SHL semi-finalists. So far this season, Frolunda is in top spot while Brynas, despite a star-studded roster, languishes in 10th place in the 14-team league, with approximately two-thirds of the regular season played. Frolunda has won all three head-to-head SHL matchups so far this season.
Frolunda has dominated both domestically and in the CHL this season, having lost only eight times in 44 games across both competitions. After losing only once in the CHL regular season, Frolunda edged France’s Grenoble in the round of 16 and Germany’s ERC Ingolstadt in the quarters. After finishing 10th in the CHL regular season, Brynas rallied to beat Switzerland’s SC Bern in overtime before finishing off Finland’s KalPa Kuopio
Frolunda is by far the most successful team in CHL history so far with four titles and five previous final appearances. Brynas has never progressed this far in the CHL but twice reached the final of the IIHF European Cup in the early ‘70s.
Frolunda’s roster includes Ivar Stenberg, who is coming off a stellar performance at the IIHF World Junior Championship. Brynas’ star-studded roster includes Olympic-bound goaltender Damian Clara (Italy) and defenceman Michal Kempny (Czechia).
Key players: Frolunda – Jere Innala, Max Friberg, Erik Thorell, Ivar Stenberg, Henrik Tommernes, Lars Johansson; Brynas – Jakob Silfverberg, Nicklas Backstrom, Lucas Pettersson, Johannes Kinnvall, Michal Kempny, Damian Clara.
(9) Lulea Hockey SWE vs (13) EV Zug SUI
This is a matchup between two teams with lots of CHL experience – Zug playing for the ninth time and Lulea for the sixth. They met for the first time in the first regular-season game this year in Lulea, with Zug winning 3-2 in overtime. Lulea was the CHL champion in its initial 2014-15 season and is trying to return to the final for the first time since then. This is just the second time Zug has reached the semi-finals but it is trying to keep the title in Switzerland following wins by Geneve-Servette and the ZSC Lions the past two seasons.
After finishing ninth in the CHL regular season, Lulea has since taken care of Czechia’s Kometa Brno and top-seeded Ilves Tampere from Finland. Zug snuck into the CHL playoffs on the last day before dispatching Czechia’s Sparta Prague and Finland’s Lukko Rauma.
Despite reaching this stage of the European competition, both teams have struggled domestically – Lulea is seventh in the SHL while Zug is eighth in the 14-team National League, currently riding a five-game losing streak.
Lulea’s roster includes two-time U.S. Olympian Brian O’Neill and Mathias Brome, Linus Omark and Erik Gustafsson, who have represented Sweden once each. Zug’s roster includes Olympic-bound goaltender Leonardo Genoni (Switzerland) and forwards Tomas Tatar (Slovakia) and Dominik Kubalik (Czechia).
Key players: Lulea – Filip Eriksson, Brian O’Neill, Mathias Brome, Erik Gustafsson, Frederic Allard, Matteus Ward; Zug – Dominik Kubalik, Tomas Tatar, Jan Kovar, Gregory Hofmann, David Sklenicka, Leonardo Genoni.
Like the round of 16 and quarter-finals, the semi-finals will be played in two legs, with one game on each team’s home ice – the higher-seeded team gets the second game at home. There will be no overtime played following the first game, even if it is tied. The first games will be played on 13 January in Zug and Gavle, and the return games on 20 January in Gothenburg and Lulea.
The one-game CHL final is scheduled for Tuesday, 3 March, after the Olympic break.
Starting this season, CHL games are streamed on IIHF.tv. You can find more information about the availability of IIHF.tv streams here.
For the full schedule and more information about the competition, visit the Champions Hockey League website.