Due to the myriad of changes to this year’s Euro Hockey Tour, the Euro Hockey Challenge has been impacted as well, with only two legs in this year’s competition, rather than the usual three. The participants of the Euro Hockey Tour (Russia, Sweden, Finland, Czechia) will face off against four rising European squads (Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia and Norway) in a series of two-game challenges, giving the lower ranked squads the chance to compete against the top teams in Europe.

These games will count for four total games in the standings, with the former teams having Euro Hockey Tour matchups count for these standings, while the latter four squads will compete in a third leg along with four other squads (Belarus, Denmark, France and Latvia) to round out the Euro Hockey Challenge standings.

The EHC has proven to be quite a success, leading to some remarkable upsets of the top European powerhouses – in fact, the last few Euro Hockey Challenges with the IHLC on the line saw the likes of Switzerland, Norway and Belarus, with Switzerland’s win propelling them into the 2013 Worlds with the IHLC, which they held undefeated all the way to the Gold Medal Game. Final dates and locations will be released soon, and will be updated here as soon as they become available.

Schedules for the Euro Hockey Challenge are as follows:

First Leg, 1-6 April
🇷🇺 Russia @ Germany 🇩🇪 (5 and 6 Apr @ Oberhausen)
🇨🇿 Czechia @ Norway 🇳🇴 (3 and 4 Apr @ Lillehammer)
🇫🇮 Finland @ Switzerland 🇨🇭 (1 Apr @ Kloten, 3 Apr @ Basel)
🇸🇪 Sweden @ Slovakia 🇸🇰 (2 Apr @ Trenčín, 4 Apr @ Bratislava)
🇱🇻 Latvia @ Belarus 🇧🇾 (2 Apr @ Molodechno, 4 Apr @ Lida)
🇩🇰 Denmark @ France 🇫🇷 (3 Apr @ Courchevel, 4 Apr @ Megève)

Second Leg, 8-12 April
🇩🇪 Germany @ Finland 🇫🇮 (9 Apr @ Lahti, 10 Apr @ Espoo)
🇷🇺 Russia @ Switzerland 🇨🇭 (8 Apr @ La Chaux-de-Fonds, 10 Apr @ Geneva)
🇸🇰 Slovakia @ Czechia 🇨🇿 (9 and 10 Apr @ Jihlava)
🇳🇴 Norway @ Sweden 🇸🇪 (10 Apr @ Oskarshamn, 11 Apr @ Norrköping)
🇧🇾 Belarus @ Denmark 🇩🇰 (9 Apr @ Aalborg, 11 Apr @ Odense)
🇫🇷 France @ Latvia 🇱🇻 (10 and 11 Apr @ Rīga)

Third Leg, 16-19 April
EHT: 🇷🇺 Russia @ Finland 🇫🇮 (16 Apr @ Tampere, 18 Apr @ Helsinki)
EHT: 🇨🇿 Czechia @ Sweden 🇸🇪 (17 Apr @ Umeå, 19 Apr @ Timrå)
🇧🇾 Belarus @ Slovakia 🇸🇰 (16 Apr @ Košice, 18 Apr @ Poprad)
🇱🇻 Latvia @ Norway 🇳🇴 (17 and 18 Apr @ Bergen)
🇫🇷 France @ Germany 🇩🇪 (16 Apr @ Füssen, 18 Apr @ Ravensburg)
🇨🇭 Switzerland @ Denmark 🇩🇰 (16 Apr @ Rungsted, 18 Apr @ Rødovre)

Fourth Leg, 22-26 April
EHT: 🇸🇪 Sweden @ Russia 🇷🇺 (24 and 25 Apr @ Mytischi)
EHT: 🇫🇮 Finland @ Czechia 🇨🇿 (22 Apr @ Znojmo, 24 Apr @ Brno)
🇸🇰 Slovakia @ Latvia 🇱🇻 (24 and 25 Apr @ Rīga)
🇳🇴 Norway @ Belarus 🇧🇾 (24 Apr @ Minsk, 25 Apr @ Salihorsk)
🇩🇪 Germany @ Denmark 🇩🇰 (24 and 25 Apr @ Vojens)
🇨🇭 Switzerland @ France 🇫🇷 (24 Apr @ Grenoble, 26 Apr @ Lyon)

This will be the first opportunity for a new team removed from the Euro Hockey Tour to win the IHLC, and potentially hold on to the title and bring it to the 2015 World Championships. We can’t wait until April to find out where the chips will fall, and who will march into May with the IHLC!

Photo Credit: Pekka Rautiainen