Six Nations Tournament

The Six Nations Tournament (Italian: Torneo Sei Nazioni; German: Sechs-Nationen-Turnier; French: Tournoi des Six Nations) was an ice hockey competition that took place from 1994 to 1996. The tournament was also sometimes called Cup of the European Leagues (Italian: Europa Ligacup, German: Europäischer Ligacup, French: Coupe des Ligues Européennes).

History
The short-lived Six Nations Tournament was actually an offshoot of the Alpenliga; actually, for the inaugural season, 1994-95, the Alpenliga was itself a part of the tournament. Indeed, the tournament involved 29 teams split in four leagues:


 * The Alpine League, true descendent of the Alpenliga, featuring teams from Northwestern Italy and Western Austria, just as the original Alpenliga, plus teams from the French Alps;
 * The Adriatic League, involving teams from Northeastern Italy and Southern Austria;
 * The Atlantic League, comprising of teams from Northern France, the Netherlands and Denmark;
 * The Danube League, for the teams from Eastern Austria and Slovenia.

Those leagues had between 6 and 8 teams, and every club played each other in its league twice (once home, once away). The top teams of each league qualified for a joint tournament to determine a champion; said champion for 1994-95 turned out to be HC Bolzano, who defeated Rouen HC in the two-legged final.

For the next season, the competition's format was changed as the Adriatic and Danube Leagues were merged back into the Alpenliga, which almost completely regained its independence; it dropped the French Alps teams in the process. Meanwhile, the Atlantic League resumed its activities, featuring almost the same teams. It consisted of a simple regular season of 10 games, two against everyone, with no other playoffs than a two-legged series for the Atlantic League winner (Rouen HC for a second year) with the Alpenliga winner (VEU Feldkirch). That one final almost never happened, and without a late agreement between Rouen and Feldkirch, there'd have been none at all. Rouen defeated Feldkirch in both matches, 5-2 in Feldkirch and 7-3 in Rouen, in order to win their first ever international competition. That proved to be the last season of the Six Nations Tournament, as the Alpenliga resumed its activities as normal after that, while the Atlantic League never resumed operations.