EHC Olten
| EHC Olten | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Greatest successes | |
|
|
| Club information | |
| history | EHC Olten since 1934 |
| Nickname | Power mice, townspeople with three fir trees |
| Club colors | green white |
| league | Swiss League |
| Venue | Kleinholz ice rink |
| capacity | 6,190 seats (of which 980 seats) |
| executive Director | Patrick Reber |
| Head coach | Fredrik Söderström |
| captain | Philipp Rytz |
| Season 2019/20 | 3rd place, playoff quarter-finals |
The Ice Hockey Club Olten (EHCO) is a Swiss ice hockey club from Olten , which currently plays in the Swiss League . The club was founded in 1934 and rose in the 1984/85, 1987/88 and 1992/93 seasons to the National League A , but could not establish itself there. Since 2000 it has existed in the form of a stock corporation (EHCO AG).
history
The beginning
On February 4, 1934, the ice hockey department of the Eisclub-Olten was created. In the same year one joined the Swiss Ice Hockey Association SEHV . The ice hockey players were allowed to train once a week in the Kleinholz natural ice rink. Against a combined team from Zurich, the EHC Olten lost their first game with 0: 7 goals. In 1938 the ice hockey subsection of the Olten ice club adopted its own statutes. In the course of the Second World War , ice hockey activities also almost came to a standstill in Olten.
New beginning
In 1946 the EHC Olten played in the second division. On October 1, 1946, the club broke away from figure skating and was founded as EHCO. At that time, all ice hockey players had to buy an ice rink subscription to use the ice rink. A junior team was not founded due to financial and space shortages on the natural ice rink. By 1960, registration was missed three times and it was not possible to take part in national championships.
On the way to the modern age
With the opening of the Kleinholz artificial ice rink in 1961, ice hockey experienced a quantitative and qualitative boom in the Olten region. The regular training times that are now possible also allow a junior department. With 60 club members, the costs for all teams in 1962 were around CHF 9,500.
The basis for sporting success was worked out under player- coach Tino Catti . So in 1966 the promotion to the first division was achieved. The EHC Olten was 1st league champion in 1970 and thus rose to the National League B (NLB). Since then, the EHCO has been continuously represented in the NLB or National League A (NLA). In 1976 the Kleinholz artificial ice rink was roofed.
In the derby against local rivals SC Langenthal , the record of 9,000 spectators, which is still valid today, was set in 1981. This year, the EHCO signed Hank Taylor, the first colored player in Swiss ice hockey. Until the rise, the budget between 1975 and 1984 was around 400,000 Swiss francs per season. The debt level increased to around 100,000 francs.
The NLA years
Under the young Swiss coach Rolf Altorfer , the EHC Olten rose to the top Swiss national league A for the first time in 1985 . In the last game of the season on March 5, 1985 in Bern against SC Bern, success was secured at the last minute. Bern's coach Olli Hietanen , formerly a player in Olten, had replaced his goalie with a sixth field player with a score of 3: 3, 115 seconds before the end, in order to enable canton rivals SC Langnau to advance with a win . However, the Canadian Roberto Lavoie scored the gateway to promotion for the EHCO.
The team, which was inexperienced in the NLA, was led by German national player Erich Kühnhackl in 1985/86 . It succeeded in maintaining the league. The following year, despite Kühnhackl and the three-time Czechoslovak world champion Vladimír Dzurilla as coach, the relegation had to be accepted.
Then the most successful period in sport in the history of the EHCO began. Under Kent Ruhnke as a trainer, the title of NLB master was won in 1988 and immediate promotion was achieved. In the 1988/89 season , seventh place and fifth place in 1989/90, and each played in the play-off quarter-finals. In the 1989/90 season, the EHCO temporarily ranked first in the table. According to Kent Ruhnke in the Sunday newspaper in 2008, Mike McEwen was playing with Mike McEwen "the best foreigner I have ever coached" in Olten. The average number of viewers in the NLA was 4,679 in 1989/90.
In 1990 the offer of the Soviet players Slawa Bykow and Andrei Chomutow was rejected. They had not taken enough time to check the offer, and the Soviet world champions then convinced Friborg-Gottéron .
In 1992, the EHC Olten rose again after not having achieved a single away win. On April 7, 1992, after a 2-1 defeat at HC Martigny, relegation was certain. In this game, the then 15-year-old Christian Dubé , who later became a key player at SC Bern , played for Martigny .
One season later, the EHC Olten, now under the new label "Power-Mouse", was able to achieve immediate resurgence. This last season in the NLA was not sporty and the club was immediately relegated in 1994. On March 8, 1994 the EHCO at EHC Biel ended the last NLA season so far after an extension (3: 3) and a lost penalty shootout. The budget in the NLA was estimated at around CHF 4.00 million.
Economically difficult years
With the decline, the economic situation worsened. The debt level in 1996 was around 3.65 million Swiss francs. Among other things, there was a player strike. However, the association's creditors were able to be convinced that inheritance proceedings were being carried out, which came about in 1996.
On July 21, 2000, the Ice Hockey Club Olten AG EHCO was entered in the commercial register of the Canton of Solothurn . The 1st team and the elite juniors have been run by this AG since then. This implemented a requirement of the Swiss Ice Hockey Association SEHV . This had declared the business form AG for the participation in the game operations of the national league as binding. The youth work was brought together in EHCO 2000 AG . The association founded in 1934 was thus discontinued and replaced.
EHCO AG also struggled with economic difficulties. In spring 2003 the management considered selling the first team. The budget fell to up to 1.6 million francs. After this crisis there were personnel changes in the board of directors and in the management of EHCO AG. The new management initially set itself the goal of financial consolidation, debt reduction and the establishment of economically viable organizational structures. At the general meetings of EHCO AG in the following years, the board of directors stated that the budget was balanced without further cuts, slight surpluses were achieved and the debt level was continuously reduced.
Consolidation and new goals
The Board of Directors consistently pursued the consolidation course it had embarked on. And so he presented an economically positive result at the 13th General Meeting of EHCO AG in December 2013 for the ninth time in a row. The debts could be marginalized. Equity was strengthened by issuing additional shares. The budget grew to around 3.4 million Swiss francs by the 2011/12 season. EHCO-AG founded its own catering company and took over this business area on its own in the 2012/13 season in the "Kleinholz" stadium. For the general renovation of the stadium, the EHCO, as a partner of Sportpark Olten AG, contributed around 5 million Swiss francs to expand the infrastructure of the VIP areas and the video display.
The board of directors gave the medium-term establishment of the first team among the top 4 of the NLB and then the promotion to the NLA as a sporting objective.
Athletic development in the NLB
Under the given economic conditions, the team was able to establish itself athletically in the National League B , but was no longer classified with great frequency in the upper half of the table in the years 2000-2010. From the 1997/98 season, the EHCO achieved personal continuity and athletic stabilization with coach Markus Graf and the Russian foreigners Albert Malgin and Dmitri Schamolin . As a result, the 2003/04 season, as already under the coach Alfred Bohren , the greatest success so far in this period in the club's history, the semi-finals were reached again. Here the EHCO lost 2: 4 to the HC Sierre in the series .
The repeated economic restart in 2004 was reflected in the EHCO's squad. A number of regional players who were young at the time (Meister, Schwarzenbach, Wüthrich, Aeschlimann) have since formed the core of the developing team. The coaches Dino Stecher and Dan Ratushny significantly shaped the sporting orientation and development of the team. With players like Billy Tibbetts , Eric Lecompte and Zarley Zalapski , dazzling personalities were also committed.
With growing economic efficiency, it was possible to invest in an increasing quality of the management team and, increasingly, in a wider range. This was reflected in steadily improving results.
2008/09 season
| season | Placement (qualification / playoffs) |
Average attendance (qualification / playoffs) |
|---|---|---|
| 1994/95 | Rank 8 | |
| 1995/96 | Rank 9 | |
| 1996/97 | Relegation play-out | |
| 1997/98 | Rank 6 / PO quarter-finals | |
| 1998/99 | 3rd place / PO semifinals | |
| 1999/00 | Rank 7 / PO quarter-finals | |
| 2000/01 | Rank 5 / PO quarter-finals | |
| 2001/02 | Rank 7 / PO quarter-finals | 1,748 / 1,850 |
| 2002/03 | Rank 8 / PO quarter-finals | 1,444/900 |
| 2003/04 | 4th place / PO semifinals | 1'445 / 2'239 |
| 2004/05 | Rank 9 / relegation play-out | 1'008 / 1'265 |
| 2005/06 | Rank 7 / PO quarter-finals | 1,342 / 1,297 |
| 2006/07 | Rank 9 | 1,381 / --- |
| 2007/08 | Rank 7 / PO quarter-finals | 1,814 / 3,532 |
| 2008/09 | Rank 5 / PO quarter-finals | 2,210/2,973 |
| 2009/10 | Rank 2 / PO semifinals | 2,612 / 4,021 |
| 2010/11 | Rank 2 / PO semifinals | 2,832 / 4,237 |
| 2011/12 | Rank 7 / PO quarter-finals | 3,022 / 3,480 |
| 2012/13 | 3rd place / PO final | 3,430/5,221 |
| 2013/14 | Rank 1 / PO quarter-finals | 3,497 / 4,305 |
| 2014/15 | Rank 5 / PO final | 3,634 / 5,756 |
| 2015/16 | 3rd place / PO semifinals | 3,677 |
| 2016/17 | Rank 5 / PO quarter-finals | 3,426 |
| 2017/18 | 3rd place / PO final | 3,491 / 5,374 |
In the 2008/09 season, the club was able to improve in terms of sport compared to previous years. After winning a preparatory tournament in Epinal , two series of 9 games in a row could be achieved without defeat. Participation in the playoffs was secured before the turn of the year, and on December 28, 2008, with 5,234 spectators, again in the derby against local rivals SC Langenthal , the highest number of visitors since the last relegation to the NLB was reported. At the end of the qualifying round, the team reached fourth place and, after an additional intermediate round, fifth place in the table. In the playoffs 2008/09, the team was eliminated in the quarter-finals against EHC Visp with 1: 4 wins. After the end of the season, the EHCO parted ways with his trainer Dino Stecher .
2009/10 season
For the 2009/10 season Dan Ratushny was signed as the new head coach. The foreigner positions were filled with the Canadians Brent Kelly and Jeff Campbell . They already played together for the Danish top club Herning Blue Fox . The 75th anniversary of the EHCO was celebrated with a preparation game against the promotion team of the year 1984/85 and a special jersey. In the season, the team reached second place in the qualification and was eliminated in the playoff semifinals against the eventual NLB champions HC Lausanne with 1: 4 wins. Brent Kelly reached the third place with 92 points and Jeff Campbell with 81 points the fifth place of the scorer list in the NLB qualification. With 6,500 spectators, which means that the home stadium is sold out, the highest number of visitors was reached on December 27, 2009 against SC Langenthal. After the end of the season, Canadians Kelly and Campbell moved to NLB rivals SC Langenthal.
2010/11 season
For the 2010/11 season, the contract with head coach Dan Ratushny was extended for two more years. The Canadian Carsen Germyn and the American Marty Sertich became new foreigners . Both were signed from the American Hockey League . As in the previous year, second place was achieved in the qualification. The club was eliminated again in the playoff semifinals against HC Lausanne. Until his head injury, Marty Sertich took first place in the NLB scorer rating. The average attendance increased to 2,832 viewers per game in the qualification and 4,237 in the play-off. At the end of the season, Dan Ratushny and Carsen Germyn left the club and switched to the Straubing Tigers in the German Ice Hockey League . Long-time goalkeeper Urban Leimbacher also left the club and moved to the NLA for the SCL Tigers .
2011/12 season
For the 2011/12 season Colin Muller was signed as the new head coach. The open foreigner position was filled with the Canadian Tyler Redenbach , who moved from the Finnish SM-liiga to Switzerland. In preparation, the EHCO won the international NH Hotels Cup at the hosting Dresden Ice Lions . After a sustained series of defeats, the EHCO parted ways with coach Colin Muller and Kent Ruhnke took over the position of head coach again at the turn of the year 2011/12 until the end of the season. He was assisted by former national player André Rötheli .
Just like Muller, Tyler Redenbach did not meet the EHCO's expectations and was released in January 2012. Cory Pecker and after the injury-related loss of Marty Sertich, Dan DaSilva were committed to the foreign position . Despite these measures, the qualification was only finished in seventh place. In the play-off quarter-finals, the EHCO lost to EHC Visp with 1: 4 wins.
2012/13 season
Scott Beattie became the new coach of the season . During the season, his contract was extended for 5 years. In the course of the qualifying round, a new club record was set with 13 games won in a row. During the season they led the table on 39 match days and ended up in third place. Marco Truttmann was the best scorer in the entire league in the qualifying round.
During the season, a number of new players were signed to strengthen the squad, such as Paul DiPietro and Derek Cormier . Long-time goalkeeper Urban Leimbacher also returned to Olten before the playoffs. In the playoffs, the EHCO prevailed in the quarter-finals with 4: 3 wins against HC La Chaux-de-Fonds , whereby the victory in the decisive seventh game could only be secured in extra time. In the semifinals, SC Langenthal was defeated 4-2 wins. Three of the six games were only decided in extra time. In the second game of this series, player Ronny Keller was seriously injured after a collision . Keller became paraplegic as a result of this accident. The single judge of the SEHV rated the action of the Langenthal player Stefan Schnyder as an accident.
In the final, the EHCO clearly lost 4-0 to the later promoted Lausanne HC . With the entry into the final of the NLB, third place in the qualification and the again increased attendance average, the 2012/13 season was the most successful in the recent history of the EHCO.
2013/14 season
The squad was largely rebuilt before the start of the season. 13 players who were still contractually bound in the NLB final of the previous season were replaced by 7 newcomers by the start of the season. The two Canadians Shayne Wiebe and Justin Feser , who were occupying the two permissible foreigner places at the time, are playing in Europe for the first time. The qualifying round ended with the EHCO ten points ahead in first place. It was outstanding that a new club record was set with 14 wins in a row, won all five matches against the SCL Tigers , the second-placed relegated from the NLA, and the derby against SC Langenthal on January 9, 2014 11-2 on their own ice was won. As in the previous season, HC La Chaux-de-Fonds were the opponents in the playoff quarter-finals . The series was lost 2: 4, the entry into the semi-finals and thus the achievement of the sporting goals of the season was missed. In addition to the sporting achievements, the season was marked by the renovation work in Kleinholz . The south grandstand was only accessible in the playoff and the number of spectators was limited to 4,355 during the season.
2014/15 season
In preparation for the new season, the squad was only changed selectively. After the departures of the captain Sandro Tschuor , Paul Di Pietro , Wesley Snell and Pascal Krebs, who all no longer continued their playing careers, the squad was not completely filled with Codey Burki and Ruben Rampazzo . During the season Christopher Bagnoud and Sami El Assaoui were again committed as defenders. Significant changes have been made to the organization. For the first time, the EHCO employed Jakob Kölliker , the former coach of the German national team, a sports director. The tasks in the management of EHCO-AG were redistributed. As the new assistant coach, Dino Stecher received another contract after his time as head coach from 2006 to 2009. Even in the preparation phase, the team's capabilities and results, measured against the stated claim to want to play for the title, were unsatisfactory. At the beginning of the qualifying round, the results were so poor that they were temporarily bottom of the table. In the newly created Swiss Ice Hockey Cup, they failed in the round of 16 against the SCL Tigers . Since, in the opinion of the club's management, no significant improvement could be recognized, Scott Beattie was given leave of absence as a trainer on November 21, 2014 and Dino Stecher took over the position of head coach on a temporary basis.
Five weeks after the start of the season, on October 7, 2014, the first home game was played. This was also the premiere in the renovated stadium with new grandstands, new entrances, new stadium restaurant, new roof, new dehumidification system and a new video cube. The video cube was financed by the association itself. 5'588 spectators followed the game against SC Langenthal. On October 23, 2014, the board of directors announced at the general assembly of EHCO-AG that it had generated a positive operating result for the tenth year in a row.
On December 10, 2014, Heikki Leime was introduced as the new trainer. The athletic performance could not be stabilized in the short term, so that at the end of the qualification they only finished fifth. This result was still below the stated season goal of establishing itself among the best four NLB clubs. With the beginning of the playoffs one could achieve sporting successes again. In the quarter-finals, the reigning NLB champion EHC Visp was defeated with 4: 0 wins and in the semi-finals the runner-up in the qualification, HC Red Ice , was defeated with 4: 1 wins. In the final, the EHCO lost 3: 4 wins to the later promoted to the NLA, the SCL Tigers from Langnau.
2015/16 season
EHC Olten finished the 2015/16 season in third qualifying place. In the playoff quarter-finals, the EHC Visp was initially defeated with 4: 3 wins, in the semi-finals, however, the later NLB champion HC Ajoie prevailed.
Season 2016/17
Maurizio Mansi took over the coaching position for the 2016/17 season, but was dismissed on January 24, 2017 in fifth place in the NLB table. The sporting management justified the step as follows: "The development of the team has been pointing in the wrong direction since November 2016 and last weekend - after a discussion initiated by the coach - reached a new low with two clear defeats." Parts of the supporters had also turned away from the team. Mansi's successor was the Swede Bengt-Åke Gustafsson .
It was drawn into the playoffs as qualifying fifth, in the quarterfinals they were eliminated against the Rapperswil-Jona Lakers (1: 4 games). Then it came to the separation from sports director Köbi Kölliker .
Season 2017/18
Head coach Gustafsson was sacked at the beginning of February 2018: This was preceded by a negative series with only five wins in 15 games, at the time of the separation the club was in third place in the NLB table. The Swede's successor was his previous assistant, the American Chris Bartolone . Bartolone led the team to the championship final, where they lost again to Rapperswil. In mid-April 2018, the contract with coach Bartolone was extended by one year, and Marc Grieder was signed up for the post of sports director .
Season 2018/19
The championship title in the Swiss League was given as the objective for the game year. This was missed. In the playoff semifinals, the team was eliminated against SC Langenthal. Coach Bartolone's contract, which expired at the end of April 2019, was not extended.
Season 2019/20
The Swede Fredrik Söderström was signed as a new coach with a view to the 2019/20 season. He had previously worked successfully in Norway.
Fans
The fan culture was subject to a major upheaval after the last relegation from the NLA. Generational change and sporting failure caused a considerable part of the fans to leave. Some of these fans found themselves in new organizations. So they founded z. In 2005, for example, the independent patrons' association “PRO HOCKEY OLTEN” with the aim of providing financial support for hockey in the Olten region. This association has around 250 members.
With the new decade, new fan groups were founded, which show a strong presence, especially at away games. Fan friendship exists to fan clubs of the HC Sierre and the Landshut Cannibals . There are rivalries between the fans of EHC Biel and SC Langenthal . For some years now, as with almost all NLB clubs, there have also been ultra-oriented fan groups in Olten who gather in the south curve behind the gate. Together they support the EHCO visually and acoustically. In the 2016/17 season , the EHC Olten had the highest average in the entire league with 3,426 spectators.
In 2013 an umbrella organization was founded to bundle fan activities under the name -olten1934-.
Venue
→ Main article: Kleinholz ice rink
EHC Olten has played in the Kleinholz ice rink in Olten since it was founded. The ice rink offers space for around 6,000 spectators (as of 2015). In 1962 the Kleinholz ice rink was converted into an artificial ice rink and roofed over in 1976. In the 1990s and 2000s, the stadium had an audience capacity of 5,000 standing and 1,500 seats.
Between 2013 and 2015, Sportpark Olten AG, as owner, carried out the general renovation of the stadium. The grandstands were renewed, the entrances to the grandstands were changed, the players' cabins were refurbished and the roof was replaced.
Previous trainers / foreigners
Web links
- Website of the EHC Olten
- Offspring of the EHC Olten
- Factsheet on the website of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation
Individual evidence
- ↑ Web agency: MySign © 2017 Switzerland, http://www.mysign.ch : Further information - Ice Hockey Club Olten EHCO. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on May 13, 2016 ; Retrieved on January 25, 2017 (Swiss Standard German). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Web agency: MySign © 2017 Switzerland, http://www.mysign.ch : Further information - Ice Hockey Club Olten EHCO. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 25, 2017 ; Retrieved on January 25, 2017 (Swiss Standard German). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Bang after 7-2 victory: EHC Olten dismisses Maurizio Mansi - Bengt-Ake Gustafsson takes over . In: ot Oltner Tagblatt . ( oltnertagblatt.ch [accessed on January 25, 2017]).
- ↑ Ice Hockey Club Olten: Olten and Köbi Kölliker split up - EHC Olten - EHCO. Retrieved on March 3, 2017 (Swiss Standard German).
- ↑ https://www.oltnertagblatt.ch/sport/solothurn/der-ehc-olten-entlaesst-trainer-gustafsson-chris-bartolone-uebernnahm-bis-zum-saisonende-132165678
- ↑ http://www.ehco.ch/de/olten-trennt-sich-von-gustafsson-_content---1--1--2108.html
- ↑ https://www.aargauerzeitung.ch/sport/eishockey/playoffs-die-lust-auf-mehr-machen-132407554
- ↑ http://www.ehco.ch/de/bartolone-bleibt-grieder-wird-sportchef-_content---1--1--2176.html
- ↑ EHC Olten - start of the season on the ice: "The championship title is the goal". September 10, 2018, accessed March 27, 2019 .
- ↑ Ice Hockey Swiss League - EHC Olten: Coach Chris Bartolone has to go. March 26, 2019, accessed March 27, 2019 .
- ↑ https://www.solothurnerzeitung.ch/sport/solothurn/jetzt-ist-es-definitiv-der-41-jaehrige-schwede-fredrik-soederstroem-wird-trainer-des-ehc-olten-134464452
- ↑ Team statistics NLB qualification 16/17. Retrieved April 23, 2017 .
