Lausanne Hockey Club | |
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City | Lausanne, Switzerland |
League | National League A |
Founded | 1922 |
Home arena | CIG de Malley |
Colors | Red, white |
Owner(s) | Ken Stickney |
General manager | Sacha Weibel |
Head coach | Dan Ratushny |
Captain | Andres Ambühl |
Website | www |
Lausanne HC is an ice hockey team based in the city of Lausanne, Switzerland, which competes in the National League A - the top tier of Swiss hockey. During the 2004–05 NHL lockout, the HC Lausanne signed National Hockey League players like Martin St. Louis and Andy Roach.
During the 2014-15 season, their second in the National League A, the team averaged 6,711 spectators per game, ranking them third in the league in term of attendance.
Founded in 1922, the Lausanne Hockey Club is one of the oldest clubs in Switzerland. They played for sixteen years at Chalet-à-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.
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.