sport 2007 iihf european champions cup
Mestský Hokejový Klub Žilina is a professional Slovak ___MASK54___ club based in Žilina . The club has won the Slovak league championship in 2006 . The team is nicknamed " Vlci ", it means Wolves in English . History . The club was founded on 25 January 1925 as ŠK Žilina . They played first official game against Slávia Banská Bystrica on 16 December 1928 . Žilina was beaten 0  3 . They competed in the Championship of Central Slovakia before and during the World War II . In the 1931  32 season they won this championship . After WW II and restored Czechoslovakia they played in the Czechoslovak Extraliga two seasons . Žilina finished last in the 1951  52 season and the 1952  53 season . They won the 1964  65 1 . SNHL season and promoted to the qualification for the Czechoslovak Extraliga . In the qualification round they lost all games and did not promote . After dissolution of Czechoslovakia they were included to the Slovak 1 . Liga , second level of Slovak hockey . Žilina won the 2000  01 Slovak 1 . Liga season and promoted to the Slovak Extraliga first time . In the 2005  06 season they reached the most remarkable success . Žilina won the Slovak Extraliga first time after beating HK Poprad 4  3 in the final series . Michal Hreus was the top scorer of Žilina in the playoffs , recording 15 points ( 7G + 8A ). Through the victory in Extraliga they gained an option to play with the best European ___MASK54___ teams in the IIHF European Champions Cup . Žilina was defeated 0  7 by HPK in first game but then won 4  2 against HC Sparta Praha and finished second in the Ragulin division . The IIHF European Champions Cup ( ECC ) was an annual event organized by the International ___MASK54___ Federation ( IIHF ), which took place during a long weekend in early January . The winner was considered the official club champion of Europe by the IIHF . The Champions Cup was first played in 2005 , as a replacement for the defunct European Cup ( 1965  1997 ), and the suspended European Hockey League ( 1996  2000 ). In the 2008  09 season , the ECC was replaced by the Champions Hockey League , which was the new official European club championship event . The new tournament was cancelled after only one season . However , another tournament with the same name was introduced in 2014 . The Liiga , known as SM - liiga from 1975 to 2013 , and colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English , is the top professional ___MASK54___ league in Finland . As of March 2008 , it is ranked by the IIHF as the second strongest league in Europe . It was created in 1975 to replace the SM - sarja , which was fundamentally an amateur league . The SM - liiga is not directly overseen by the Finnish ___MASK54___ Association , but the league and association have an agreement of cooperation . SM is a common abbreviation for " Suomen mestaruus ", " Finnish championship ". On 9 August 2013 , the league dropped the SM , and simply became Liiga . ___MASK14___ Club Lugano , often abbreviated to HC Lugano or HCL , is a professional ___MASK54___ club based in Lugano , Switzerland . The team competes in the National League A and has won seven Swiss championships . The team is the ninth most attended team in Switzerland for the 2015 - 16 season with 5 , 783 spectators . The Nashville Predators are a professional ___MASK54___ team based in Nashville , Tennessee . They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League ( NHL ). The Predators joined the NHL as an expansion team in the 1998  99 season , and play their home games at Bridgestone Arena . The International ___MASK54___ Federation ( IIHF ; French : ) is a worldwide governing body for ___MASK54___ and in - line hockey . It is based in Zurich , Switzerland , and has 74 members . It manages international ___MASK54___ tournaments and maintains the IIHF World Ranking . ___MASK14___ Club Ak Bars , also known as Ak Bars Kazan , is a Russian professional ___MASK54___ team based in Kazan , Tatarstan . They are a member of the Kontinental ___MASK14___ League . HPK ( shortage for Hämeenlinnan Pallokerho ) is an ___MASK54___ team in the Liiga . They play in Hämeenlinna , Finland at the Hämeenlinnan jäähalli . HPK was established in 1929 . The full name of the club is " HPK - Edustusjääkiekko Ry " and the team is sometimes promoted as the " Hockey Playing Knights ", with the logo representing a knight masked in a helmet . HPK won their first SM - liiga championship in 2006 . The roster below is out of date . The current starting goalie is Nashville Predators draft pick Juuse Saros , who recently led Finland to the World Junior Championship Gold Medal . Although undersized he is extremely athletic and is the starter for HPK at age 18 . ___MASK14___ Club Sparta Praha ( eng : HC Sparta Prague ) is a Prague based Czech ___MASK54___ team playing in the Czech Extraliga . The European ___MASK14___ League was a European ___MASK54___ club competition which ran between the years 1996 and 2000 . The 2007 IIHF European Champions Cup was the third edition of IIHF European Champions Cup . It was held in Saint Petersburg at the Ice Palace arena , from January 11 to January 14 . The champions of 2006 of the six strongest ___MASK14___ nations of Europe participate : Ak Bars Kazan ( RUS ) , Färjestads BK ( SWE ) , MsHK Žilina ( SVK ) , HPK ( FIN ) , HC Sparta Praha ( CZE ) , HC Lugano ( SUI ) . National League A ( NLA ) is a professional ___MASK54___ league in Switzerland . It is the top tier of the Swiss hockey league system and of the two - tier National League . Prior to the 2007  08 season , the league was officially called Nationalliga A ( German ),. The NLA has the most attended hockey club in Europe , SC Bern , and is also the most attended league within the same continent , averaging 7 , 026 spectators for the 2015  16 season . HK Poprad is a professional ___MASK54___ team in the Slovak Extraliga , the top ___MASK54___ league in Slovakia . It plays its games in Poprad , Slovakia . The squad ' s greatest success was 2nd place in the Slovak Extraliga in 2006 and 2011 . The club is nicknamed " Kamzíci ", which means " Chamois " in English . ___MASK54___ is a contact team sport played on ice , usually in a rink , in which two teams of skaters use their sticks to shoot a vulcanized rubber puck into their opponent ' s net to score points . ___MASK54___ teams usually consist of six players each : one goaltender , and five players who skate up and down the ice trying to take the puck and score a goal against the opposing team . The Kontinental ___MASK14___ League ( KHL ) is an international professional ___MASK54___ league founded in 2008 . It comprises 29 member clubs based in Belarus , China , Croatia , Finland , Kazakhstan , Latvia , Russia , and Slovakia and it is planned to expand to more countries . It is widely considered to be the premier professional ___MASK54___ league in Europe and Asia , and second in the world behind the NHL . Slovak Extraliga ( Slovenská Extraliga ) is the highest - level ___MASK54___ league in Slovakia . As of 2009 , it is ranked by the IIHF as the fifth strongest league in Europe and in 2012 it was ranked by " The Hockey News " as the sixth strongest league in the world behind the NHL , KHL , Swedish Hockey League , SM - liga and Czech Extraliga . The name of the league is leased to sponsor and changes frequently . From 1993 / 94 to 1997 / 98 season it was called " Extraliga ", then the name changed to " West Extraliga " until the end of 2000 / 01 season . In 2001 / 02 its name was " Boss Extraliga ". Since 2002 / 03 season to 2004 / 05 the name changed to " ST Extraliga " and in 2005 / 06 to " T - Com Extraliga ". From 16 January 2007 the name changed to Slovnaft Extraliga when a general sponsor agreement with Slovnaft was signed , and from 2011  12 season is called Tipsport extraliga and Slovnaft - Play - off , and from 2015  16 season is called Tipsport liga and Slovnaft - Play - off .