Ice hockey team in Lausanne, Switzerland
Lausanne Hockey Club
is an
ice hockey
team based in the city of
Lausanne
,
Switzerland
, which competes in the
National League
(NL). During the
2004?05 NHL lockout
, the HC Lausanne signed
National Hockey League
players
Martin St. Louis
and
Andy Roach
.
The team plays its home games in the 10,000-seat
Vaudoise Arena
.
History
[
edit
]
Founded in 1922, the Lausanne Hockey Club is one of the oldest clubs in
Switzerland
. They played for sixteen years at
Chalet-a-Gobet
, in the city heights. In 1938, LHC moved their headquarters to
Montchoisi
where, in 1941, they merged with Star HC to become the Montchoisi Hockey Club. On November 6, 1949, the team of Lausanne chose their original name: Lausanne Hockey Club. It is with this name that they started off in the Swiss national league.
[1]
Relegated to
Nationalliga B
in 1954, they powered back to the
Nationalliga A
on March 2, 1957 and remained there until 1961. For the next seventeen years, LHC remained at the
Nationalliga B
level where they had occasional success. On February 18, 1978, in front of over 7,000 fans, Lausanne Hockey Club obtained promotion to
Nationalliga A
, defeating
HC Davos
8 goals to 4. After three seasons spent in the highest league, LHC, following the loss of a player in a car accident, was relegated to NLB. They remained there from 1981 to 1984 before falling to the
1. Liga
while also moving to the International Ice Center at
Malley
(CIGM) where they still play today. They then played one season in first League (84-85) and made a round trip to NLB (85-86), to be back in the first League. Three years later they reached the finals in 1989 and obtain their promotion to NLB.
[1]
Lausanne HC's squad after a game on April 1, 2010
In 1992, the club's survival was threatened by a
bankruptcy
. The team saved itself from relegation to the
1. Liga
(season 1992-1993). The season 1993-1994 saw participation in the finals to access the national League A, finals played in five games against Rapperswil, the latter winning it over. At the beginning of the 1994-1995 season, Lausanne Hockey Club was designated as the Nationalliga B favorite to access the NLA. Against
GCK Lions
during the finals and after five games, the decisive match was won by Lausanne 8 to 0. In the 1995-1996 season, after a series of losses the club decided to fire their head coach. The change didn't prevent Lausanne from being relegated to NLB at the end of the season. During the following four seasons, the LHC occupied the middle of the NLB ranking until 2000-2001 when they were at the head of the championship during almost the whole season. Lausanne won the title of champion of NLB and defeated
HC La Chaux-de-Fonds
for the promotion games. Winning against the HCC in six matches, LHC was back in NLA for the 2001-2002 season.
[1]
After a relegation in the 2004?05 season, Lausanne played the role of “favorite” for the other teams of the NLB. In April 2007, Canadians Barry Alter and
Ken Lockett
were introduced to the public as new majority owners of the club to help the club through financial difficulties.
[2]
With the introduction of former coach
Jim Koleff
to the ownership group, later represented by his wife following his death, Lausanne was also backed by
Hugh Quennec
with interest already in fellow professional club,
Geneve-Servette HC
.
[3]
Lausanne HC after a match, 1 April 2010
The club tried to reach the NLA once again through promotion, but failed twice in the promotion games 2008?09 and the 2009?10 seasons, losing both times against
EHC Biel
in seven games. In the 2012?13 season, after a slow start into the regular season, Lausanne won the NLB championship for the 7th time, defeating
EHC Olten
in the play-off final. In the following promotion games, Lausanne defeated the
SCL Tigers
in six games to reach again the NLA for the
2013?14
season.
In 2013, following the series of promotion / relegation blocks against the SCL Tigers, the club moved up in the National League A with four wins and two defeats.
[4]
During the
2014?15
season, their second in the NLA, the team averaged 6,711 spectators per game, ranking them third in the league in term of attendance.
[5]
In February 2016, American businessman Ken Stickney acquired the majority of shares of Lausanne from Quennec. Stickney was previously president of
EHC Kloten
and a member of Avenir Sport Entertainment LLC (ASE), the owner of the club.
[6]
[7]
In April 2016, the Lausanne released Danish head coach
Heinz Ehlers
after failing to make the playoffs for the
2015?16
season.
[8]
Ehlers had achieved with the playoff appearances in 2014 and 2015, the largest club successes in the NLA until then. His was succeeded by
Daniel Ratushny
on April 26, 2016.
[9]
Under Ratushny, the team used an overly defensive style capitalizing on opportunistic offense. Enjoying initial success they finished the
2016?17
regular season in fourth place.
[10]
In the playoffs, however, LHC did not find victory in the quarter-final's against
HC Davos
, suffering a series sweep.
[11]
Following 12 points in their first 10 games in the
2017?18
season, Ratushny was let go of his coaching duties on 11 October 2017.
[12]
He was replaced on an interim basis by former Lausanne youth coach and fellow Canadian,
Yves Sarault
, and later announced to remain for the remainder of the season.
[13]
However, with the club still struggling into the new year placing third from the bottom of the league, a second coaching change was announced as Sarault was replaced by
John Fust
on 8 February 2018.
[14]
Venues
[
edit
]
The home games of the Lausanne HC were played in the
CIG de Malley
from 1984 to 2017 and had an official capacity of 8,000 spectators.
[15]
While waiting for completion of a new arena in the
2017?18
season, Lausanne moved to a temporarily built ice hockey arena known as the 2.0 Malley, which sat 6,700 spectators. It was established as the largest temporary ice hockey arena in the world.
[16]
The new arena opened in September 2019. The new ice rink received the sponsorship name
Vaudoise Arena
, after the insurance company Vaudoise.
[17]
Players
[
edit
]
Current roster
[
edit
]
Updated 8 January, 2024
[18]
Honored members
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]