Soligorsk

That building started with the Ice Palace itself, opened in August 2008, a year before the team that would fill it. Shakhtyor came into being as a farm side for HC Dynamo Minsk, its bench staffed by coaches pulled in from Keramin Minsk under Andrey Gusev. Independence came later, on 1 January 2013, when the club registered as its own legal entity, backed by the potash producer Belaruskali and the local firm Niva — a pairing that explains why the shirts settled on orange and black, the colours of the mining town itself.

Runner-up finishes have come more often — three times in the league, twice in the cup — and bronze has become something close to a habit, six times across the following decade.

Rivalries have not settled into one fixed shape. HK Gomel has supplied the sharpest recent playoff meetings, while Metallurg Zhlobin carries the older grudge, and Yunost Minsk is remembered for finals rather than league fixtures.

None of it outgrows the ground it is played on. The Ice Palace holds 1,760.