At the conclusion of the IIHF Continental Cup's third round, the Nottingham Panthers, Odense Bulldogs, Ritten Sport and Beibarys Atyrau have qualified for the tournament final. 

CHL News

The four teams that will compete in the 2016-17 IIHF Continental Cup Final were decided on Sunday. The Nottingham Panthers of Great Britain, the Odense Bulldogs of Denmark, Ritten Sport of Italy and Beibarys Atyrau of Kazakhstan will play for the championship in January, and simultaneously vie for a spot in the 2017-18 Champions Hockey League.

In Group D, played in Odense, the host Bulldogs and Nottingham finished tied for the top two spots with 6 points each, while the Angers Ducs of France and HC Donbass of Ukraine finished with 3 each. Nottingham won their first two games against Odense and Angers to secure a spot in the final, then lost a meaningless game to Donbass on Sunday. After losing their first game, Odense beat Donbass on Saturday to set up an all-important clash with Angers on Sunday night. With the score tied 2-2 late in the third period, Mikael Eskesen scored on the power play with 2:01 on the clock to send the hosts through to the final round.

Tony Morano of Odense and Petr Kalus of Nottingham were Group D's top scorers with 5 points each. 

In Group E, played in Ritten, the hosts were perfect with 9 points from three regulation victories while Atyrau were second with 6, followed by Shakhtyor Soligorsk of Belarus with 3 and GKS Tychy of Poland with 0. Atyrau wrapped up their place in the final round with a 4-2 victory over Tychy. Ritten needed only a point from the group's last game to advance, but they did better than that by winning 3-1.

Ritten's Jason Williams led Group E in scoring with 6 points, including 2 in the last game. Ritten's Jared Gomes and Atyrau's Albert Vishyakov and Maxim Korobov all had 4 points.

For each of the participating teams, it is their first final-four appearance. Additionally, with teams from Great Britain, Denmark, Italy and Kazakhstan in the final, it is guaranteed that a new country will win the Continental Cup for the first time this season. The Nottingham Panthers are the only team to have played in the CHL before, having participated in the 2014-15 season. 

The Continental Cup final round will be played 13-15 January. The venue for the three-day tournament will be announced at a later date.