KHL Medveščak Zagreb

KHL Medveščak Zagreb (cro. Ice Hockey Club Medveščak Zagreb) is a Croatian ice hockey team. It is the most successful and popular ice hockey team in Croatia. The team plays in the Bobrov Division of the Kontinental Hockey League for the 2015–16 season, their third season in the league. The team's namesake is derived from the location of its original arena in Gornji Grad – Medveščak.

History

The team was established in 1961, from the team SD Zagreb. In its first ten seasons in the Yugoslav Hockey League, Medveščak solidified as the second most popular team in Zagreb to football team Dinamo, playing their games in an outdoor rink in the upper-class neighbourhood of Šalata, with a draw of around 5,000 spectators a game. In 1971 the team moved into an indoor rink in Zagreb called the Dom Sportova, with the capacity to hold up to 6,400 fans. Over the first two decades of their existence Medveščak middled in success however never won the Yugoslav championship and by the early 1980s was mired in a financial crisis to almost suffer relegation from the top league in 1985.