Cardiff Devils celebrate after winning the 2025 Continental Cup. Who will take the crown this year?
photo: James Assinder
The IIHF Continental Cup final gets underway in Nottingham tomorrow, with six teams vying for European glory. Latvian hope Mogo Riga has battled through two rounds of qualifying to get this far, with French team Angers Ducs also making it through November’s semi-final.
They join four seeded teams. Host club Nottingham Panthers are hoping to win the trophy for the second time and keep it in the UK after Cardiff Devils’ success last year. Poland’s GKS Katowice is back for a third consecutive final and will be out to add to last season’s bronze medal. Herning Blue Fox, from Denmark, was a silver medallist two years ago, while Kazakhstan’s Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk return to the final for the first time since 2008.
Every game at the 2026 IIHF Continental Cup Final is streamed live at IIHF.tv
New format
For the first time, the Continental Cup final features six teams. And that means a revised format with two groups of three, generating gold-medal and bronze-medal games on the final day. Host club Nottingham Panthers will contest one group along with Mogo Riga and GKS Katowice. The second group features Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk, Herning Blue Fox and Angers Ducs. On Saturday, the winners of each group go head-to-head for the trophy, the runners-up playoff for bronze and the third-placed teams have a classification game.
Four Olympians
Fans in Nottingham will get a look at four players heading to this year’s Olympic Winter Games in Milan. Three of them are on the Herning roster, which features Danish forwards Morten Poulsen and Mathias Bau, plus Latvian defender Oskars Cibulskis. In addition, Angers Ducs’ forward Nicolas Ritz is on the Olympic roster for Team France.
The race to 10
If the Panthers can win a medal on home ice, it will be the 10th time a team representing Great Britain has finished on the podium. To date, the Brits have two gold, three silver and four bronze. So far, no nation has reached double figures, with Belarus also on nine but not taking part in this year’s competition. Nottingham was the first British club to win the cup, in 2017, triggering a run of seven medals in eight seasons for the UK. In 2020, Nottingham added a silver medal to its tally when it finished runner-up behind SonderjyskE in Vojens, Denmark.
Latvian experience
HK Mogo is in its first ever Continental Cup final, but there’s no shortage of big-game experience on the Latvians’ roster. Veteran defender Kristaps Sotnieks, 38, has played 90 games through 13 IIHF World Championships and featured at two Olympics. He was also part of the HK Riga teams that won Conti Cup silver in 2006 and 2008. Fellow blue-liner Krisjanis Redlihs also has a wealth of international experience: three Olympics and nine Worlds. At the age of 44, he’s still going strong. Among the forwards, team captain Gints Meija, 38, was another mainstay of Team Latvia and also won Conti Cup silver with Angers in 2023. And Maris Bicevskis, a relative youngster at 34, played in four World Championships.
Nottingham memories
Four players on the GKS Katowice have fond memories of playing in Nottingham. In 2023, Grzegorz Pasiut, Patryk Wronka, Bartosz Fraszko and Mateusz Michalski were all part of the Poland team that came here for World Championship Division IA. Against the odds, they battled to second place and promotion to the top division for the first time in 22 years. Roared on by a noisy contingent of supporters from back home and within the Polish community in Britain, GKS will hope to add to the bronze medals it won in 2019 and 2025 – coincidentally both at tournaments staged in the UK.
Game schedule (all times are local)
Wednesday, Jan. 14
1430: Angers Ducs vs Herning Blue Fox
1900: Mogo Riga vs Nottingham Panthers
Thursday, Jan 15
1430: Herning Blue Fox vs Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk
1900: GKS Katowice vs Mogo Riga
Friday, Jan. 16
1430: Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk vs Angers Ducs
1900: Nottingham Panthers vs GKS Katowice
Saturday, Jan. 17
1100: 5/6 placement game
1500: Bronze medal game
1900: Gold medal game
They join four seeded teams. Host club Nottingham Panthers are hoping to win the trophy for the second time and keep it in the UK after Cardiff Devils’ success last year. Poland’s GKS Katowice is back for a third consecutive final and will be out to add to last season’s bronze medal. Herning Blue Fox, from Denmark, was a silver medallist two years ago, while Kazakhstan’s Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk return to the final for the first time since 2008.
Every game at the 2026 IIHF Continental Cup Final is streamed live at IIHF.tv
New format
For the first time, the Continental Cup final features six teams. And that means a revised format with two groups of three, generating gold-medal and bronze-medal games on the final day. Host club Nottingham Panthers will contest one group along with Mogo Riga and GKS Katowice. The second group features Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk, Herning Blue Fox and Angers Ducs. On Saturday, the winners of each group go head-to-head for the trophy, the runners-up playoff for bronze and the third-placed teams have a classification game.
Four Olympians
Fans in Nottingham will get a look at four players heading to this year’s Olympic Winter Games in Milan. Three of them are on the Herning roster, which features Danish forwards Morten Poulsen and Mathias Bau, plus Latvian defender Oskars Cibulskis. In addition, Angers Ducs’ forward Nicolas Ritz is on the Olympic roster for Team France.
The race to 10
If the Panthers can win a medal on home ice, it will be the 10th time a team representing Great Britain has finished on the podium. To date, the Brits have two gold, three silver and four bronze. So far, no nation has reached double figures, with Belarus also on nine but not taking part in this year’s competition. Nottingham was the first British club to win the cup, in 2017, triggering a run of seven medals in eight seasons for the UK. In 2020, Nottingham added a silver medal to its tally when it finished runner-up behind SonderjyskE in Vojens, Denmark.
Latvian experience
HK Mogo is in its first ever Continental Cup final, but there’s no shortage of big-game experience on the Latvians’ roster. Veteran defender Kristaps Sotnieks, 38, has played 90 games through 13 IIHF World Championships and featured at two Olympics. He was also part of the HK Riga teams that won Conti Cup silver in 2006 and 2008. Fellow blue-liner Krisjanis Redlihs also has a wealth of international experience: three Olympics and nine Worlds. At the age of 44, he’s still going strong. Among the forwards, team captain Gints Meija, 38, was another mainstay of Team Latvia and also won Conti Cup silver with Angers in 2023. And Maris Bicevskis, a relative youngster at 34, played in four World Championships.
Nottingham memories
Four players on the GKS Katowice have fond memories of playing in Nottingham. In 2023, Grzegorz Pasiut, Patryk Wronka, Bartosz Fraszko and Mateusz Michalski were all part of the Poland team that came here for World Championship Division IA. Against the odds, they battled to second place and promotion to the top division for the first time in 22 years. Roared on by a noisy contingent of supporters from back home and within the Polish community in Britain, GKS will hope to add to the bronze medals it won in 2019 and 2025 – coincidentally both at tournaments staged in the UK.
Game schedule (all times are local)
Wednesday, Jan. 14
1430: Angers Ducs vs Herning Blue Fox
1900: Mogo Riga vs Nottingham Panthers
Thursday, Jan 15
1430: Herning Blue Fox vs Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk
1900: GKS Katowice vs Mogo Riga
Friday, Jan. 16
1430: Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk vs Angers Ducs
1900: Nottingham Panthers vs GKS Katowice
Saturday, Jan. 17
1100: 5/6 placement game
1500: Bronze medal game
1900: Gold medal game