Three Slovak championships in as many seasons see the team from a town of less than 80,000 back in the Champions Hockey League.

Located in the middle of Slovakia around the Tatra Mountains, HC05 Banská Bystrica flip-flopped between the top two Slovak divisions for five seasons after the break up of Czechoslovakia, before staying in the second tier from 1999 until 2008 – avoiding relegation down to the third tier in 2005. Their ninth consecutive season in the top Slovak league saw them win both the regular season and playoffs, having fallen at the last hurdle the two previous seasons.

In 2018 they retained their title, coming through the playoffs as fourth seeds to eliminate former CHL sides Košice and Nitra on the way to the finals, where they would defeated Dukla Trenčin in seven games. In 2019, they made it a three-peat, finishing first in the regular season and defeating HK Poprad in a five-game final series.