All eight teams that make up Groups A and B opened the 2024-25 IIHF Continental Cup schedule on Friday from two venues.
Group A (Sofia, Bulgaria):
Crvena Zvezda (SRB) 1 – Liège Bulldogs (BEL) 2
Crvena Zvezda (Red Star) Belgrade dropped its opening game on home ice by a slight margin. Belgrade led 1-0 after two periods on a power-play goal by Igor Mitrović, but two goals in the third, including Boet van Gestel’s game-winner on a 5-on-3 with 6:35 remaining, gave Liège the victory.
KHL Sisak (CRO) 15 – SC Irbis-Skate (BGR) 1
Croatian champion Sisak scored four goals in the first period, seven in the second and four in the third, en route to a convincing 15-1 opening victory over host Irbis-Skate. Patrik Dobrić had three goals and an assist and Carson Brière had two goals and three assists for the victors. Dayan McMullin got the lone goal for the Bulgarian champs in the third period.
Group B (Narva, Estonia):
Energija (LTU) 5 – Skautafélag Reykjavíkur (ISL) 0
Energija exploded out of the gate with two goals in the first minute of the game and was in firm control the rest of the way, outshooting the team from Iceland by a 61-18 margin. Aivarus Bendzius scored twice and Matthew Stephen Gould recorded three assists, while Arkadijus Grigaravicius-Reyzin picked up the shutout. Johan Ragnarsson made 56 saves for Skautafélag.
Narva PSK (EST) 1 – CH Jaca (ESP) 5
The visiting Spanish champs took control of the game with two goals late in the first period and never looked back. Jaime Capillas scored twice and Adrian Torralba Gutierrez had three assists for Jaca, while Nikita Kirillov’s power-play goal with 4:02 to play spared Narva from being shut out on home ice.
Each team plays a three-game round-robin within its group, with the group winners advancing to the second round. For the full structure of this season's Continental Cup, read below:
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