HC Ambrì-Piotta

HC Ambrì-Piotta
Greatest successes
Swiss Cup winner 1962 Swiss runner-up in 1999 IIHF Continental Cup winner 1998, 1999 IIHF Super Cup winner 1999
Club information
history	HC Ambrì-Piotta (since 1937)
Club colors	white , blue
league	National League
Venue	Pista la Valascia
capacity	7000 seats (of which 2000 seats)
executive Director	Michele Orsi
Head coach	Luca Cereda
captain	Elias Bianchi
Season 2018/19	5th place, playoff quarter-finals

The HC Ambri-Piotta (short HCAP ) is a Swiss ice hockey club from the village of Ambri in the municipality Quinto . It was founded in 1937 and plays in the National League .

The club has 17 fan clubs in Switzerland and three more in Italy. The regular encounters with cantonal rivals HC Lugano are known as “Ticino derbies”. The club's anthem is “ La Montanara ”, which is sung by the audience after each victory. The Pista la Valascia stadium was inaugurated in 1959 and is considered the coldest in the National League . Ambrì-Piotta has never won the Swiss championship and is considered an eternal underdog , since 1985 the HCAP has been playing in the NL without interruption.

history

The club was founded in 1937 as the first ice hockey club in Ticino. In the 1950s, the team from what was then the village club played in the National League A for the first time and won the Swiss Cup in 1962 under the coach Herbert Ulrich . In 1948, 1949, 1950 and 1970 the club became champions of the NLB. Also in 1970 one rose to the NLA and was represented there until relegation in 1978.

1980s

In 1982 Ambrì again made the leap into the NLA, but in 1983 he was immediately relegated. In 1985 the Leventines were promoted to the NLA again and they soon achieved playoff successes: In the playing years 1986/87 (elimination against HC Lugano ), 1987/88 (elimination against HC Davos ) and 1988/89 (elimination against Lugano) reached the semi-finals.

1990s

The HCAP remained a permanent guest in the final round: In 1990 and 1991 it did not go beyond the quarter-finals, in 1992 and 1993 Friborg-Gottéron blocked the way to the final in the round of the last four teams. In 1994 and 1995 the quarter-finals were reached, 1996 was against the EHC Kloten in the semi-finals. Shortly before the turn of the millennium, Ambrì was still represented among the top teams of the NLA: In 1998 they were defeated in the semi-finals by EV Zug with 3: 4 victories, in the 1998/99 season coach Larry Huras led the team as the first qualifier in the final round, where the Reached the final, but lost it to their cantonal rivals Lugano (1: 4 wins) - the HCAP was thus the Swiss runner-up. In 1998 and 1999 the team won the IIHF Continental Cup and in 1999 the European Supercup.

2000s

In the 1999/2000 season there was a new edition of the final of the previous year in the playoff semi-final: Again Lugano prevailed against Ambrì in the Ticino derby. From 2002 to 2006 they were eliminated five times in a row in the quarter-finals. In 2009 Filippo Lombardi became the new Chairman of the Board of Directors and in this role succeeded Gian Paolo Grassi, who had been in office since 2003.

2010s

HC Ambrì-Piotta player (2014)

In the summer of 2011, the HCAP was financially on the brink of collapse; only aid measures such as collecting donations ensured survival.

In the 2013/14 season, after years of waiting, they made it back to the finals, but Serge Pelletier's team was eliminated in the quarter-finals with 4-0 wins against Friborg. Pelletier had to leave in October 2015, at the time of this decision Ambrì was last in the table. Hans Kossmann was signed as the new coach.

In April 2016, the Italo-Canadian Ivano Zanatta was hired as sports director, as the club announced, Zanatta's task included “developing and implementing a medium to long-term sports strategy for the entire club”. Head coach Kossmann was sacked at the end of January 2017, and the Canadian Gordie Dwyer from the Croatian club Medvescak Zagreb (at that time in the Continental Hockey League ) joined the Leventines as his successor . In the 2016/17 season, Ambrì only secured the NLA in the league qualification against SC Langenthal . Following the season, Paolo Duca ended his playing career and became head of sport, replacing Zanatta in this position. A change was also made in the coaching position with regard to the 2017/18 season: Luca Cereda succeeded Dwyer, who was replaced after only a few months in office.

In the 2018/19 season Ambrì qualified for the playoffs , also thanks to the top Czech league scorer Dominik Kubalík , but lost to EHC Biel in the quarter-finals . In December 2019, the HCAP took part in the Spengler Cup for the first time and reached the semi-finals with two wins.

Financial situation

Shortly after the successful 1998/99 season, financial problems came to the club. A fundraising campaign among fans resulted in an amount of CHF 2.5 million - another CHF 2 million were made available by prominent sponsors - which ensured that the team remained in the top division of Swiss ice hockey. After relegation could only just be prevented in the 2010/11 season, another appeal for donations was started. Fans and supporters collected 2.7 million Swiss francs within a few months. In 2012, the Egyptian entrepreneur Samih Sawiris participated in the upcoming capital increase with CHF 1 million.

The 2014/15 season ended with a loss of around two million francs, while the 2015/16 season saw a deficit of just under 1.5 million francs.

player

Blocked jersey numbers

• # 8 Nicola Celio
• # 15 Dale McCourt
• # 19 Peter Jaks

• # 46 Paolo Duca

Well-known former players

Andy Bathgate Corey Millen Valery Kamensky Petr Malkow Ihor Tschybyrjew Jean-Guy Trudel

Massimo Calzone Gabriele Fransioli Pauli Jaks Oleg Petrov Róbert Petrovický Guido Lindemann

Kim Johnsson Mike Bullard John Fritsche senior Luca Cereda Hnat Domenichelli Nick Naumenko

Peter Jaks Erik Westrum Matt Duchene Cory Schneider Patrick Lebeau Stéphan Lebeau Dominik Kubalík

Squad for the 2019/20 season

As of October 8, 2019

No.	Nat.	player	Item	Date of birth	in the team since	place of birth
1		Benjamin Conz	G	September 13, 1991	2017	Saint-Ursanne , Switzerland
7th		Isacco Dotti	D.	January 20, 1993	2018	Mairgeno , Switzerland
90		Jannik Fischer	D.	June 29, 1990	2018	Baar ZG , Switzerland
5		Tobias Fohrler	D.	0June 9, 1997	2019	Troisdorf , Germany
29		Michael Fora -  A.	D.	October 30, 1995	2018	Giubiasco , Switzerland
17th		Igor Jelovac	D.	0February 1, 1995	2016	Switzerland
82		Michaël Ngoy	D.	January 10, 1982	2016	Lausanne , Switzerland
23		Julian Payr	D.	July 23, 2000	2019	Feldkirch , Austria
55		Christian Pinana	D.	March 16, 1997	2017	Switzerland
44		Nick Plastino	D.	February 20, 1986	2017	Sault Ste. Marie , Ontario , Canada
20th		Elias Bianchi -  C.	C.	April 22, 1989	2009	Lugano , Switzerland
36		Matt D'Agostini	RW	October 23, 1986	2016	Sault Ste. Marie , Ontario , Canada
39		Chris Egli	LW	March 19, 1996	2019	Davos , Switzerland
10		Brian Flynn	C.	July 26, 1988	2019	Lynnfield , Massachusetts , USA
26th		Tommaso Goi	C.	0January 8, 1990	2018	Varese , Italy
91		Fabio Hofer	F.	January 23, 1991	2018	Lustenau , Austria
71		Patrick Incir	RW	August 11, 1994	2017	Aurigeno , Switzerland
11		Johnny Kneubuehler	C.	May 27, 1996	2018	Reiden , Switzerland
22nd		Diego Kostner	RW	05th August 1992	2016	Bressanone , Italy
74		Marco Müller -  A	F.	January 21, 1994	2014	Switzerland
75		Joël Neuenschwander	RW	0October 2, 1999	2019	Switzerland
12		Jiří Novotný	C.	August 12, 1983	2018	Pelhřimov , Czechoslovakia
9		Dario Rohrbach	RW	0July 8, 1998	2018	Switzerland
65		Robert Sabolič	RW	September 18, 1988	2019	Jesenice , SR Slovenia
18th		Noele Trisconi	C.	0May 8, 1996	2016	Switzerland
16		Dominic Zwerger	LW	July 16, 1996	2017	Dornbirn , Austria

Coaching staff

Surname	nationality	Date of birth
Luca Cereda		7th September 1981
René Matte		June 8, 1972

Top scorer

• Top scorer 2001/02 : 46 - Róbert Petrovický
• Top scorer 2002/03 : 35 - Róbert Petrovický
• Top scorer 2003/04 : 68 - Jean-Guy Trudel
• Top scorer 2004/05 : 59 - Hnat Domenichelli
• Top scorer 2005/06 : 59 - Hnat Domenichelli
• Top scorer 2006/07 : 53 - Jean-Guy Trudel
• Top scorer 2007/08 : 72 - Erik Westrum
• Top scorer 2008/09 : 47 - Paolo Duca
• Top scorer 2009/10 : 39 - Paolo Duca
• Top scorer 2010/11 : 27 - Inti Pestoni
• Top scorer 2011/12 : 30 - Maxim Noreau
• Top scorer 2012/13 : 46 - Jason Williams
• Top scorer 2013/14 : 38 - Alexandre Giroux
• Top scorer 2014/15 : 40 - Alexandre Giroux
• Top scorer 2015/16 : 40 - Inti Pestoni
• Top scorer 2016/17 : 34 - Janne Pesonen
• Top scorer 2017/18 : 41 - Matt D'Agostini
• Top scorer 2018/19 : 57 - Dominik Kubalík

Trainer

1937–1947 not known 1947–1949 Giovanni Zamberlani 1949–1951 Harry Vedan 1951–1953 Beat Rüedi 1953-1958 Bob Kelly 1958-1959 Larry Kwong 1959–1960 cellar 1960–1961 Ed Zukiwski 1961–1963 Herbert Ulrich 1963–1964 Bob Bragagnolo 1964–1965 Let Lilja 1965–1968 Jiří Kren 1968–1969 Jiří Anton 1969–1970 Rüdi Kilias 1970–1971 Bob Hall 1971–1972 Andy Bathgate

1972–1973 Josef Cvach 1973–1974 Derek Holmes 1974–1977 Jiří Kren 1977–1978 Ivan Bencic 1978–1979 Alpo Suhonen 1979–1982 Jiří Kren 1982–1983 Jean Cusson , Jiří Kren 1983-1984 Lasse Lilja 1984–1985 Peter Ustorf 1985–1986 Andrzej Szczepaniec 1986–1987 Roland Von Mentlen 1987–1988 Roland Von Mentlen , Julius Kovacs , Dan Hober 1988–1990 Dan Hober 1990-1993 Bryan Lefley 1993-1994 Perry Pearn

1994–1996 Alexander Jakuschew (until Nov. 1996) 1996-2000 Larry Huras 2000-2001 Pierre Pagé 2001-2003 Rostislav Čada 2003-2005 Serge Pelletier 2005–2006 Serge Pelletier, Pekka Rautakallio 2006–2007 Pekka Rautakallio, Larry Huras 2007-2008 Jan Tlacil 2008–2009 John Harrington , Rostislav Čada 2009–2010 Benoît Laporte 2010–2012 Kevin Constantine 2012–2015 Serge Pelletier 2015 – January 2017 Hans Kossmann January 2017 – April 2017 Gordie Dwyer since April 2017 Luca Cereda

Fans

The grandstand singing the victory anthem (2014)

Many HCAP fans are considered very loyal to the club. The club has over 25 fan clubs and three autonomous fan groups. The “Gioventù Biancoblu” (white-blue youth) with their characteristic flags belong to the autonomous fan groups who all feel they belong to the Ultrà movement .

Web links

• Official homepage (Italian, German)
• Portrait on the National League website

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hockey Club Ambrì Piotta
2. ↑ www.20minutes.ch, 20 Minutes, 20 Min, www.20min.ch: Filippo Lombardi nouveau président d'Ambri . In: 20 minutes . ( 20min.ch [accessed on April 3, 2017]).
3. ↑ martin merk and samuel hufschmid // switzerland: new president for Ambri. Retrieved April 3, 2017 . 
4. ↑ 1.5 million reached - Ambrì is saved. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 4, 2017 ; Retrieved April 3, 2017 . 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.  
5. ↑ Ambri pulls the rip cord: Pelletier fires, Kossmann takes over . In: watson.ch . ( watson.ch [accessed on March 24, 2017]).
6. ↑ Ivano Zanatta Sports Director of the HCAP and the youth department. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 25, 2017 ; accessed on March 24, 2017 . 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.  
7. ↑ Nicole Vandenbrouck: Only 15 months in office: Ambri dismisses coach Kossmann! ( blick.ch [accessed on March 24, 2017]).
8. ↑ Luzerner Zeitung AG 6006 Lucerne: Dwyer is Kossmann's successor in Ambri . ( online [accessed March 24, 2017]). Dwyer becomes Kossmann's successor in Ambri ( Memento of the original from March 16, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) 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.  
9. ↑ First sports and company analysis HCAP- Paolo Duca new sports director. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 19, 2017 ; Retrieved April 18, 2017 . 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.  
10. ↑ http://www.planetehockey.com/news-ambri-confirme-luca-cereda-en-tant-que-coach,65353.html
11. ^ Spengler Cup: Ambri-Piotta's dream of the title. December 28, 2019, accessed December 31, 2019 . 
12. ↑ "Let Ambri Live" brings 2.7 million francs . ( Memento of the original from October 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. eishockey.ch 
13. ↑ Samih Sawiris joins Ambri . In: Tages-Anzeiger, Tages-Anzeiger . December 5, 2012, ISSN  1422-9994 ( tagesanzeiger.ch [accessed on March 26, 2017]).
14. ↑ St. Galler Tagblatt AG, Switzerland: Ambri with a loss of almost 1.5 million francs . In: Toggenburger Tagblatt Online . ( toggenburgertagblatt.ch [accessed on April 7, 2017]). Ambri with a loss of almost 1.5 million francs ( memento of the original from April 8, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
15. ↑ Nicola Celio honored . hockeyfans.ch
16. ↑ Fans honor Peter Jaks - No. 19 withdrawn . blick.ch