Ice hockey in Croatia

The sport of ice hockey has been played in Croatia at least since the late 19th century. It became organised on the national level in 1935 with the establishment of the Croatian Ice Hockey Federation, and at this period Croatian teams were playing in the Yugoslav Ice Hockey League. During the 1960s, Group B of the 1966 World Ice Hockey Championships took place in Zagreb, and KHL Medveščak Zagreb became a leading team, winning the national championship on several occasions. The breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991 led to the formation of the Croatian Ice Hockey League.

On November 9, 1935 the Association for Skating and Ice Hockey was founded in Zagreb, although ice hockey in Croatia had been inherent for some 30 years, considering that Franjo Bučar, the father of Croatian sport, had founded skating section in 1894.

First game on natural ice was played in the winter of 1916 between HAŠK (Croatian Academic Sport Club) and PHŠD (First Croatian Sport Society). In 1922, the Zagreb Winter Sub-federation was founded which included skating, ice hockey and alpine skiing.

The first game by Canadian rules was played on February 3, 1924 between HAŠK and ZKD (Zagreb Skating Society) on ice next to the former Esplanade Hotel, which HAŠK won with 4:1.

The real uplift of the Croatian ice hockey was in 1930 when 3 clubs were founded, but as sections within the major sports companies: Marathon, Concordia and Karlovačko Športsko Udruženje. Other clubs were Sisak founded in 1931 as a part of Slavija Sports Society and KHL Varaždin founded in 1935.