ZSC Lions
Encyclopedia
The Zürcher Schlittschuh Club Lions (ZSC Lions) are a professional ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 team located in Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, playing in the National League A. The home arena, the 10,700 seat Hallenstadion
Hallenstadion
The Hallenstadion is a multi-purpose facility, in the Swiss city of Zurich.Designed by Bruno Giacometti, it opened on July 18, 1939, and was renovated in 2005....

, is in the Zürich district of Oerlikon. The team was founded in 1930 and played at the Dolder-Kunsteisbahn from its establishment until 1950.

History

Locally nicknamed "Z", the team was formed in 1997 as a result of the merger of the two local teams: the highly popular Zürcher Schlittschuh Club (German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 for "Zürich Skating Club"), who were struggling financially in National League A, and the ice hockey section of Grasshopper Club Zürich who had failed to qualify for promotion
Promotion and relegation
In many sports leagues around the world, promotion and relegation is a process that takes place at the end of each season. Through it, teams are transferred between divisions based on their performance that season...

 from National League B for several years in a row and had a small fan base, but were backed by entrepreneur and millionaire Werner H. Spross.

ZSC was the first Swiss team to play in an indoor arena (Hallenstadion). They won the Swiss championship in the years 1936, 1949 and 1961 and the prestigious Spengler Cup
Spengler Cup
The Spengler Cup is an annual ice hockey tournament held in Davos, Switzerland. First held in 1923, the Spengler Cup is often cited as the oldest invitational ice hockey tournament in the world. The event is hosted by the Swiss team HC Davos and played each year in Davos, Switzerland, between...

 in 1944 and 1945. After the merger, the ZSC Lions won the Swiss Championship in 2000, 2001 and 2008, the IIHF Continental Cup in 2001 and 2002.

Champions Hockey League and Victoria Cup

During the 2008-09 Season, the ZSC Lions participated in the first ever Champions Hockey League
Champions Hockey League
The Champions Hockey League was a short-lived ice hockey league which was launched in 2008 by the International Ice Hockey Federation and only played in the 2008–09 season. Its creation coincided with the IIHF's 100th anniversary and replaced the IIHF European Champions Cup, the former competition...

. For the group stage, the they were placed in group D with HC Slavia Praha and Linköpings HC
Linköpings HC
Linköpings Hockey Club, often known by its acronym LHC or, colloquially among its fans, Cluben, is an ice hockey team from Linköping, Sweden....

. The Lions qualified for the semi-finals with a 3-1 record, first place in the group. With their defeats of the Finnish Espoo Blues
Espoo Blues
The Blues are an ice hockey team in the SM-liiga. They play in Espoo, Finland at the Barona Areena.-Team history:The club was established in February 1984 as Kiekko-Espoo and played their first season in 1984-1985 in the Finnish Second Division...

, 6-3 and 4-1 respectively, they qualified for the tournament final. The first leg of the final was held on January 21, 2009 in the Magnitogorsk Arena
Magnitogorsk Arena
Magnitogorsk Arena is an indoor sporting arena located in Magnitogorsk, Russia. The capacity of the arena is 7,500 and was built in 2006. It is the home arena of the Metallurg Magnitogorsk ice hockey team. It replaced Romazan Ice Sports Palace in late 2006....

 where the Lions came back from a 0-2 deficit to Metallurg Magnitogorsk
Metallurg Magnitogorsk
Metallurg Magnitogorsk is a professional ice hockey team based in Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. They are members of the Kharlamov Division of the Kontinental Hockey League...

 to end with a 2-2 tie. The second leg was played a week later, on January 28, 2009, in the Diners Club Arena in Rapperswil-Jona
Rapperswil-Jona
Rapperswil-Jona is a municipality in the Wahlkreis of See-Gaster in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.Besides Rapperswil and Jona, which were separate municipalities until 2006, the municipality includes Bollingen, Busskirch, Curtiberg, Kempraten-Lenggis, Wagen, and Wurmsbach.-Today:On...

, Switzerland. ZSC Lions won the game and the Silver Stone Trophy
Silver Stone Trophy
The Silver Stone Trophy was originally designed and produced for the now defunct European Hockey League by Italian artist Enzo Bosi. It weighs seven kilograms in silver chisel, equivalent to one British stone, hence the name The Silver Stone...

 with a 5-0 victory.

With their victory in the Champions Hockey League, the ZSC Lions qualified to play the Chicago Blackhawks
Chicago Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . They have won four Stanley Cup championships since their founding in 1926, most recently coming in 2009-10...

 of the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

 for the 2009 edition of the Victoria Cup challenge. Playing at their home arena, the Lions shocked the Blackhawks with a 2-1 victory, winning the trophy. It was the first time since 1991 that the Blackhawks had lost to a club from Europe.

Champions

  • NLA Championship (6): 1936, 1949, 1961, 2000, 2001, 2008
  • NLB Championship (4): 1973, 1981, 1983, 1989
  • Victoria Cup (1): 2009
  • Silver Stone Trophy
    Silver Stone Trophy
    The Silver Stone Trophy was originally designed and produced for the now defunct European Hockey League by Italian artist Enzo Bosi. It weighs seven kilograms in silver chisel, equivalent to one British stone, hence the name The Silver Stone...

    (1): 2009
  • IIHF Continental Cup (2): 2001, 2002
  • Swiss Cup (2): 1960, 1961
  • Spengler Cup
    Spengler Cup
    The Spengler Cup is an annual ice hockey tournament held in Davos, Switzerland. First held in 1923, the Spengler Cup is often cited as the oldest invitational ice hockey tournament in the world. The event is hosted by the Swiss team HC Davos and played each year in Davos, Switzerland, between...

    (3): 1944, 1945, 1952


External links

ZSC Lions official site
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