There are eight teams still alive in the chase for the IIHF Continental Cup, and this weekend that will be reduced to four. The winner of January's Super Final can earn an invitation to next year's Champions Hockey League.

from IIHF.com

The IIHF Continental Cup moves into the third and final preliminary round today, with a trip to the Super Final on the line.

The Continental Cup winner can earn an invitation to the 2016–17 Champions Hockey League, pending formal approval by the CHL board. Last year Neman Grodno from Belarus won the Continental Cup and moved up. 

They started well into the Champions Hockey League with a 2–0 blanking of German champion Adler Mannheim in front of an enthusiastic home crowd in Grodno but then lost the other games against Mannheim and Vitkovice Ostrava. 

The eight teams remaining this year are split into two groups, playing round robin tournaments in Asiago, Italy and Rouen, France. The top two teams from each group will advance to the final tournament.

Group D will be hosted at PalaOdegar in Asiago, Italy, where host Asiago Hockey will play Denmark’s Herning Blue Fox, Kazakhstan’s champion Yertis Pavlodar and the qualifier Mogo Riga from Latvia. 

Asiago last played in the Continental Cup two years ago and hope to repeat history by winning their home tournament and advancing to the finals. They already faced Yertis Pavlodar two years ago and won that game 3–1. 

All six games of the tournament will be streamed live. A tournament pass can be obtained for €4.49. Click here to access the stream.

Two other places in the finals will be given to the best two teams of Group E in Rouen, France. Regular Continental Cup participants Rouen Dragons will host the event that also includes Belarusian champions Shakhtyor Soligorsk, Ukrainian champions HK Kremenchuk and GKS Tychy from Poland, which qualified after winning their second-round event on home ice. 

Also in Rouen six games will be played in the round-robin tournament from Friday to Sunday to determine two finalists. As well, the organizer in Rouen will offer a live stream for all six games. They can be watched for €2.49 per game here. 

After the arrival of all teams in Asiago and Rouen and team registration on Thursday evening, the clubs are ready to battle for advancing to the final tournament, which will be staged from 8 to 10 January 2016 at one of the participants’ home venues, to be determined.