The Croatian Ice Hockey League is the top

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

league in

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. The league is operated by the Croatian Ice Hockey Federation.

History

The league was formed in 1991 with the dissolution of

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

. Until then, Croatian teams played in the

Yugoslav Ice Hockey League The Yugoslav Ice Hockey League was the top ice hockey league in the old Yugoslavia. In 1939, Yugoslavia became a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. That year also, the country held its first national championship, with Ilirija ...

. The hockey teams Mladost and Medveščak were playing in the first division, while

Sisak Sisak (; also known by other alternative names) is a city in central Croatia, spanning the confluence of the Kupa, Sava and Odra rivers, southeast of the Croatian capital Zagreb, and is usually considered to be where the Posavina (Sava basin ...

and

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

were playing in the second division of the Yugoslav league. The former two were much stronger, but as financing went away their best players did not stay with the clubs. This resulted in a more balanced competition, in which KHL Zagreb went on to win three times in a row. Medveščak however managed to remerge as the country's dominant team, as it won the competition for eleven straight seasons. Due to the very short duration of the season, Croatian teams often play in other leagues, such as the

Slohokej League The Slohokej League (''Slohokej Liga'') was a multinational ice hockey league in Europe. The competition consisted of teams from Austria, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia. Former teams List of seasons See also *Austrian Hockey League, Erste Ba ...

Erste Bank Eishockey Liga The ICE Hockey League (International Central European Hockey League, ICEHL), known as the win2day ICE Hockey League for sponsorship reasons, is a Central European hockey league that also serves as the top-tier ice hockey league in Austria. It c ...

Interliga InterLiga was an association football competition and the qualification method between eight Mexican clubs to determine two clubs qualified for the Copa Libertadores, it was held from 2004 to 2010. History From 1998 to 2003, the Mexican clubs c ...

and

Panonian League The Panonian League ( Croatian and Serbian: Panonska Liga, Панонска Лига) was one of the multinational ice hockey leagues in Europe. The league was established in 2002 and originally comprised teams from Hungary, Romania and Croatia. ...

Teams

Champions

External links

* {{Ice Hockey Leagues Croatian Ice Hockey League Top-tier ice hockey leagues in Europe 1