SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers
SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers | |
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Club information | |
history |
Skate Club Rapperswil (SCR) (1945–1973) Skate Club Rapperswil-Jona (SCRJ) (1973–2005) Rapperswil-Jona Lakers (2005–2015) Skate Club Rapperswil-Jona Lakers (SCRJ Lakers) (since 2015) |
Location | Rapperswil-Jona , Switzerland |
Nickname | Rappi, Rosenstädter |
Club colors | red, white, blue |
league | National League |
Venue | St. Galler Kantonalbank Arena |
capacity | 6,100 seats (including 4,000 seats) |
executive Director | Markus Bütler |
Head coach | Jeff Tomlinson |
captain | Andrew Rowe |
Season 2018/19 | 12th place |
The SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers ( SCRJ for short ) are a Swiss ice hockey club in St. Gallen's Rapperswil-Jona on Lake Zurich . The first team has played in the National League again since 2018 .
history
The beginnings
The Rapperswil Ice Skate Club (SCR) was founded on January 17, 1945. A year later, on January 6, 1946, they played their first official game away from St. Gallen . The home games were played on the frozen Lake Zurich in Garnhänke. The players initially made up the board and prepared the ice rink in long night work. The weather conditions allowed very few games to be played, so training was carried out on the Dolder artificial ice rink in Zurich . Already at the beginning, around 1000 onlookers lined up the Rappi games. The Rapperswil team achieved their first successes in the 1950/51 season with the Swiss championship title Serie B, 1953/54 with the regional champions Serie A and the promotion game in the national league B, which, however, was narrowly 0-1 away in extra time against Montana Lausanne lost.
First artificial ice rink
On October 21, 1961, Walter Denzler built an artificial ice rink between Rietland and Strandweg on a private initiative, which heralded a new ice hockey age in Rapperswil. With Otto Schubiger, the Rapperswilers hired a paid player-coach for the first time and separated the administrative and sporting areas of the club. The then 37-year-old Schubiger was considered to be the fastest and most physically fit Swiss player. In 1964/65 the club rose to the National League B for its 20th anniversary . At that time, 2,500 spectators regularly attended the games in the Lido. After two seasons in the second highest league, however, the SCR was already relegated.
Renamed to SCRJ
In the 1970s, the club began a financial drought. Probably for these reasons, the club name was extended by another letter to SCRJ in 1973. The name thus expressed what the SCR has always been: a club with anchoring in Rapperswil and Jona . After years of sporting mediocrity, the semi-profit was introduced in 1976 and in the winter of 1976/77 they were promoted to National League B, which came about exclusively with their own offspring.
Consolidation in the NLB
In the following decade, the club was able to consolidate itself in the National League B. The SCRJ was still playing in the open air. This changed in 1984 when the ice rink was covered with a plastic air dome. This also countered the association's threat to withdraw the SCRJ's license to play national league games due to a lack of roofing.
In 1987/88, the Lido ice rink was finally opened, which at that time had 4,000 seats.
Promotion to the NLA
At the height of many years of targeted development work under the leadership of the new President Bruno Hug, the club achieved its highest sporting goal in the winter of 1993/94: with the passionate sympathy of the population and led by Finnish coach Pekka Rautakallio , the first team succeeded in time for the 50 year old Pass promotion to the major league. From the 1994/95 season, the team thus played in the National League A .
On July 13, 2000, SCRJ Sport AG was founded, which is a public limited company and takes care of the organization of ice hockey. The capital of Lakers Sport AG , which emerged from SCRJ Sport AG, was CHF 2,350,000 at the end of the 2008/09 season .
Renamed Lakers
For the 2005/06 season , the old club name SC Rapperswil-Jona was replaced by the new name Rapperswil-Jona Lakers . At the same time, the club introduced new, ice-blue jerseys. These changes led to disputes between the club management and a significant group of traditional fans. In the first year in the new colors, the Lakers reached the playoff semi-finals. It was the club's greatest success so far. The old “Lido” stadium, which no longer meets the NLA requirements, was completely rebuilt after the 2005/06 season. After the renovation, it was renamed the Diners Club Arena . In terms of sport, however, the new stadium only went downhill. From 2009 to 2015 they missed the playoffs seven times in a row.
Relegation and rebuilding in the NLB
In the 2014/15 season , the bear market finally culminated in relegation to the NLB after losing to the SCL Tigers in the league qualification . During the series against Langnau, Rapperswil-Jonas Chairman of the Board of Directors Lucas H. Schluep resigned from his position after there were threats against him. In the third game against the Tigers, Schluep had a clash with a spectator.
In order to reconcile with the fans, the name was changed back to SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers . In the logo, the wave has been replaced by the "e" from the old logo. In addition, the Lakers have been playing in red again since the 2015/16 season , as they had already done in the 1990s. League newcomer was the qualification of the season to decide for 2015/16, in the final, the team had to coach Jeff Tomlinson the HC Ajoie 2: give four victories beaten. Because the budget for the 2016/17 season was cut a little, the team got a new face. The Lakers played a mediocre qualification, but were able to improve in the playoffs and failed in the final just 3: 4 at SC Langenthal .
In February 2018 the SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers won the Swiss Ice Hockey Cup 2017/18 in the sold-out stadium with a 7-2 final victory over HC Davos . It was only the second time that a club from National League B was able to win the cup. In April 2018, the team under coach Tomlinson also won the championship in the Swiss League and thus moved into the league qualification against EHC Kloten . In an extremely competitive series, they prevailed in the seventh game in the Klotener Swiss Arena with 2-1 after extra time and rose again to the National League.
In the difficult first NL season, the SCRJ Lakers finished last with only ten wins from 50 games. The Lakers were also not very competitive in the playouts, which is why they lost 4-1 to HC Davos. However, since SC Langenthal withdrew from the league qualification, the Rapperswiler remained in the top division.
Seasonal statistics since 1994
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player
Squad for the 2019/20 season
As of September 8, 2019
Coaching staff
Surname | nationality | birthday |
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Jeff Tomlinson | Canada | April 23, 1970 |
Niklas Gällstedt | Sweden | February 7, 1967 |
Sven Berger | Switzerland | February 6, 1988 |
Triple winner 2018
Cup winner Swiss League Master climber in the NL |
Goalkeepers: Kevin Liechti , Melvin Nyffeler , Sascha Rochow Defenders: Sven Berger , Thomas Büsser , Cyrill Geyer ( A ), Nico Gurtner , Jorden Gähler , Frédéric Iglesias , Fabian Maier , Leandro Profico , Rajan Sataric , Florian Schmuckli Attackers: Jared Aulin ( A ), Fabian Brem , Corsin Casutt , Lars Frei , Michael Hügli , Cédric Hüsler , Dion Knelsen , Sven Lindemann , Jeremy Morin , Jan Mosimann , Martin Ness , Josh Primeau , Antonio Rizzello ( C ), Jan Vogel Head Coach: Jeff Tomlinson Assistant Coach : Robin Farkas |
Former players
- Doug Gilmour
- Jason Spezza
- Timo Meier
- Michael Del Zotto
- Pavel Brendl
- Kristian Huselius
- Mike Richard
- Stacy Roest
- Mariusz Czerkawski
- David Aebischer
- Mike Bullard
- Gilles Thibaudeau
- Pekka Rautakallio
- Mikko Eloranta
- Mathias Seger
- Andreas Ritsch
- Claudio Micheli
- Reto Suri
- Brian Hills
- Michel Giant
- Christian Berglund
- Niklas Nordgren
- Dale McTavish
- Sanny Lindström
- Thierry Paterlini
- Niklas Persson
- Nicklas Danielsson
- Johan Fransson
Blocked jersey numbers
- # 6 Cyrill Geyer
Venue
The Lido stadium was built in 1987. After the promotion to the NLA in 1994, the stadium experienced slight adjustments to the new requirements. In 2006 the stadium was completely rebuilt, with the Diners Club company contributing 1.5 million Swiss francs to the construction costs, thereby securing the naming rights of the new Diners Club Arena for ten years. In 2016, the St. Galler Kantonalbank acquired the naming rights.
The St. Galler Kantonalbank Arena has a capacity of 6,100 seats, of which 4,000 are seats.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ moneyhouse.ch: Lakers Sport AG, Rapperswil. Entry in the commercial register , accessed on July 2, 2009.
- ↑ Martin Müller: Resignation after threats on the Internet . In: Zürichsee-Zeitung . August 4, 2015 ( zsz.ch [accessed on March 28, 2017]).
- ↑ Stephan Roth, Nicole Vandenbrouck: Rapperswil is the 2018 cup winner! In: Blick.ch. February 4, 2018, accessed February 4, 2018 .
- ↑ blick.ch
- ↑ The SCRJ Lakers pull back the jersey of Cyrill Geyer. In: swisshockeynews.ch. October 5, 2018, accessed January 8, 2020 .