Kaltern

Three times SV Kaltern reached the final of the Coppa Italia, in 2023, 2024 and 2025, and three times went home without the cup. When they got there again in 2026, they finally won it, closing out a run that had gone on long enough to sting.

The club began in 1962 as the ice hockey section of the general sports club SV Kaltern, in the South Tyrolean town of Kaltern, known as Caldaro in Italian. For much of its life since, it has served as a feeder for HC Pustertal, sending players up to the top-flight ICEHL once they have proven themselves at home. The nickname, Die Hechte, the Pikes, comes from the fish native to the nearby Lake Kaltern, and it has stayed attached to the club through its red, white and black colours.

Domestically, Kaltern have been the team to catch in the second tier, the Italian Hockey League, winning it in 2019, 2021 and 2025, with a Serie B title in 2001 and a Serie A2 title in 2008 marking the climb that came before. Armin Ambach captained the side through much of that stretch, playing more than 300 games and picking up two Serie B titles of his own.

The derby against HC Eppan Pirates, from the neighbouring municipality of Eppan, brings out a crowd the club rarely sees otherwise, filling most of the roughly 1,800 seats at the Raiffeisen Arena Caldaro.