Champions Hockey League - Group H
17 Aug 2014 | Andreas Reiner
Today we present to you the four teams of Group H: ERC Ingolstadt, SaiPa Lappeenranta, HC Vitkovice Steel Ostrava and EV Zug
ERC Ingolstadt
Founded in 1964, ERC Ingolstadt worked their way up the german
regional leagues, winning various regional championships before
their trip ended in the second highest league and had to step down
in 1987 due to financial problems. But just a few years later they
found themselves back in the 2. Bundesliga in 1998. In the season
2001 Ingolstadt advanced to the DEL, the highest league as the
winner of the final, Bremerhaven, couldn't fulfill the requirements
for a participation in the DEL.
The following years proved to be successful, reaching the play offs
and advancing to the quarterfinals numerous times. I would take
until last season for the Ingolstadt Team to finally win the german
championship. As the winner, they would have qualified for the CHL
anyway, but since Ingolstadt is a shareholder of the CHL they
automatically participate.
SaiPa Lappeenranta
One of the younger clubs in the Finnish SM-Liiga, SaiPa hasn't won a
championship yet since being founded in 1948. 3 third places are the
highest accolades so far. Last year the team of coach Pekka
Tirkkonen reached the Semifinals which gave them the qualification
for this years Champions Hockey League. The Club has provided a
number of NHL-calibre players such as Antti Aalto, Jussi Markkanen,
Petteri Nokelainen, Petri Skriko, Jussi Timonen, Vesa Viitakoski or
Niklas Bäckström.
HC Vitkovice Steel Ostrava
For Swiss Fans, Vitkovice may sound familiar, yes, you're right.
They played at the Spengler Cup in 2011 and 2012, finishing 3rd.
They won the Czechoslovakian Championship twice (1952, 1981). Last
season ended in the quarter final, just like the two previous
seasons. Vitkovice had a number of players leave per the end of last
season. Patrik Valcak (to Krakow), Karol Sloboda (to Togliatti),
Michal Barinka (to Sparta Praha) or Tomas Kudelka (to Lahti) were
just a few. On the other hand, Daniel Dolejs from Brod, Patrik
Zdrahal from Rimouski Oceanic or Peter Ceresnak went the other way
and will try to strengthen Vitkovice's defense.
EV Zug
The Team of the central part of Switzerland hasn't had a great last
season. A club that has the aspiration to win a championship can't be
happy when finishing the season on 10th place out of 12 teams. For this
reason, a new head coach was hired, a name well known in the hockey
scene. Harold Kreis who used to coach HC Lugaon, ZSC Lions winning
titles with both teams. He previously coached the Mannheim Adler but his
contract was terminated just before the end of 2014. His job will be to
create a team that works together. Zug has been one of the most active
teams on the transfer market. Dario Bürgler, Björn Christen, Johann
Morant, Daniel Sondell, Robin Grossmann, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Calle
Andersson and Tobias Stephan all get their pay checks from EVZ this
season. On the other hand, numerous players were transferred to other
clubs to free space on the roster.
Zug's first an only championship win cam in 1998 when HC Davos was
beaten in a 6 game series. Leading figures of the team were goalie
Ronnie Rüeger, defender Patrick Sutter and André Künzi and Bill
McDougall, Wes Walz, Misko Antisin, André Rötheli and Jörg Eberle as
forwards. This years team definitely has the potential to reach the
knock-out stage of the Champions Hockey League and the NLA.
My predictions:
If Zug can max out their potential a qualification for the next round
should be possible. Second team could be SaiPa but Vitkovice seems to
have an experienced team.