HC Severstal is Cherepovets's entry in the Kontinental Hockey League — Russia's top professional league and one of the strongest in the world outside the NHL. Named, like everything else in the city, after the steelworks that funds it, Severstal plays its home games at the Ice Palace arena, which holds around 6,000 spectators and fills up completely for big matches. The atmosphere at a KHL game in a city like this — where hockey is not entertainment but identity — is considerably more charged than in most Western arenas.
Russian hockey fans travel from Moscow and St Petersburg for major fixtures, and the city takes on a different energy on match nights. Tickets are inexpensive by European standards and usually available at the arena on the day for regular-season games, though derbies and playoff matches sell fast. The Ice Palace is in the southern part of the city, a short taxi ride from the centre.