Cardiff Devils discover final Continental Cup group opponents

Joey Martin will be oen of Cardiff Devils' main attacking threats

Cardiff Devils have discovered their final Continental Cup group stage opponents after Rittner Buam qualified for Group E.

The Italian outfit beat Acroni Jesenice of Slovenia in their final Group C game to join the three sides who had already booked their places in the next round - Devils, host team Vlci Zilina of Slovakia and HC Arlan from Kazakhstan.

Welsh side Devils will play their Group E opponents in a round-robin between 15 and 17 November.

The top two sides will progress to the final tournament alongside the leading two teams from Group F - Aalborg Pirates (Denmark), GKS Katowice (Poland), Bruleurs de Loups de Grenoble (France) and CSM Corona Brasov (Romania) - which will be played from 16 to 19 January 2025.

Cardiff finished third in the final round of the 2023-24 event after defeats by champions Nomad Astana and Herning Blue Fox - which came either side of victory over GKS Katowice.

The Continental Cup is a European club hockey tournament open to teams that did not qualify for the Champions Hockey League.

It does not include teams from Europe’s top six national leagues - the Swedish Hockey League, Finland’s Liiga, Switzerland’s National League, Germany’s DEL, the Czech Extraliga and the Austrian-based multi-national ICEHL.

Devils are seeking to succeed in Europe along with last season’s treble winners Sheffield Steelers who have recently reached the knock-out stages of the Champions Hockey League.