Champions Hockey League - Group J

19 Aug 2014 | Henrik Lundqvist

Only two days remaining until the CHL starts. Today we take a look at the teams of Group J featuring Swedish champion Skellefteå AIK, HIFK Helsinki of Finland, Krefeld Pinguine of Germany and SønderjyskE of Denmark.

Skellefteå AIK

Skellefteå has been dominating Swedish ice hockey the last couple of years. In 2013 and 2014 they won both the regular season and the playoffs. Now they have lost many of their star players. Actually their six best scorers of last season are now gone. With a terrific youth organization and new players like Patrik Zackrisson, Kirill Kabanov, Andrew Calof, Daniel Widing and Martin Sevc Skellefteå are aiming to keep the high level. Hans Wallson is the name of the Head Coach. He was named Coach of the Year in Sweden last season.

HIFK Helsinki

HIFK from the Finnish Capital Helsinki is a very old club, dating back to 1897. Ice Hockey has been on theie programme since 1929. They have won the Finnish championship seven times. Last time in 2011. The last three seasons they have been eliminated early in the playoffs. Antti Törmänen who used to play for local rivals Jokerit is new Head Coach of the team. The team has mostly Finnish players but an interesting import is Tomas Zaborsky who joined from Salavat of KHL a week ago. Last year's top scorer and team captain Ville Peltonen has retired and will surely be missed.

Krefeld Pinguine

Krefeld qualified for CHL as one of the founding clubs. It is a club with long hockey tradition. They won their first national championship in 1952 and has then won it one more time - in 2003. Last season Krefeld was elimimnated in the DEL quarter finals. Half of the roster consists of German players, most famous of them maybe the Krefeld native Daniel Pietta. There are also imports from six different contries including last year's top scorer Adam Courchaine of Canada. Rick Adduono will start his fifth season as Head Coach of the team.

SønderjyskE

SønderjyskE of Denmark is a rather new club, founded in 2004. It has already won the Danish championship on five occasions including the last two seasons. Coach of the team is a Canadian named Dan Ceman who earlier has represented the SønderjyskE as a player 2006-2010. The team has five imports from North America; Jeff Frazee, Tyler Gotto, Patrick Asselin, Nick Dineen and Corey Quirk. There are also a few well-known Danish players on the roster. For example Mads Bødker who has played the World Championship eight times. Home venue for SønderjyskE is SE Arena which was built in 2011 and has a capacity of 5000 spectators.