KHL Sisak

Mateo Lončar holds the scoring records nobody else at KHL Sisak comes close to. The rink at Zibel seats fewer than 2,000, and the roll of honour goes back to a game the students of the 7th High School organised in February 1930. The badge, a knight gripping a stick, gave the team its nickname, the Knights, and the blue and green kept faith with the city flag throughout.

Under the INA name, in the old Yugoslav league, Sisak won the national title three times running either side of 1960. The modern Croatian league has been kinder still: five championships since the 2021–22 season, broken only by a runners-up finish in 2022–23. Captain Ivan Puzić has carried the armband through that run, alongside a defence anchored by Patrik Dobrić and a goaltender, Vilim Rosandić, capped for the national side. The club has also tested itself further afield, reaching the semi-finals of the Alps Hockey League play-offs this past season and taking part in the IIHF Continental Cup.

None of it means much on the ice, though, without KHL Zagreb across the other end of the rink. The two have met in most of the recent Croatian finals, trading the title back and forth, and it is that fixture — decided as often by nerve as by form — that still tells you where the club actually stands each spring.