| Full name |
Lyon Hockey Club
|
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Lions |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Based In | Lyon |
| Arena | Patinoire Charlemagne (Capacity: 4200) |
| Division | FFHG Division 2 |
| Team Colors | |
| President | Sébastien Berthet |
| Head Coach | Pascal Margerit |
| Captain | Damien Croux |
| Affiliates | Télé Lyon Metropole Tribune de Lyon Virgin Radio |
| Website | Les Lions |
Lyon Hockey Club (LHC or The Lions) is the ice hockey team of Lyon, France. The team currently competes in the France's Division 2 ice hockey championship. Lyon finished in first place at the end of the 2007 regular season and was undefeated in the playoff series until the final game when the Nice Eagles defeated them on Lyon's home ice.[1]
Contents |
Ice hockey was played in Lyon as early as 1898 on a rink located on the Boulevard des Belges where today the Guimet Museum stands.[2] The Sporting Club de Lyon (Lyon Sporting Club) won the national Coupe Magnus title in 1905 and 1908 but the rink was coverted to a museum in 1909 and Lyon was without a rink and a team for the next 44 years.[3]
In 1953 the Club des Patineurs Lyonnais (Skating Club of Lyon or CPL) was founded and in 1956 the Lyon team won France's Division 1 ice hockey championship.[4] In 1963 CPL built the Patinoire Charlemagne that still today serves as the home of Lyon ice sports.[5] In their new home CPL won France's Division 2 ice hockey championship in both 1972 and 1989. Christophe Geoffroy's management forces the CPL to the liquidation in 1997
Following the collapse of CPL local businessman Christophe Geoffroy founded Hockey sur glace lyonnais Elite (Lyon Elite Ice Hockey).[6] Teamed with the Lyon Hockey Club Association, an association charged with developing junior ice hockey, the Lyon Hockey Club was born. The new team experienced quick success and twice finished third in France's Ligue Magnus in 1997 and 1998. LHC qualified for Europe's Continental Cup in 1999 and reached the quarter finals before being elminated.[7]
By 2000 LHC had been relegated to France's Division 3 championship but quickly began to rise through national ranks again. In the 2001 season Lyon reached and won the Division 2 championship and earned a place in Division 1 for season 2002. A poor season in 2002 saw the team return to the second division once again and, despite reaching the final in 2007, LHC remains a Division 2 team in 2008.[8]
Lyon began the season with a trip to the Illberg Arena to face Mulhouse. Down a goal at the end of the first period, Mulhouse scored again and the Lions scored twice in the second to go into the final break all even. Both Mulhouse and Lyon scored once more in a hard fought final period before a goal to the LHC in the final seconds saw the Lions leave Illberg with their first win of the season.[9]
Lyon welcomed Nantes to the Patinoire Charlemagne in the second round of the Southern Pool and stunned their opponents with a goal after only 28 seconds. A fiery first period ended with Lyon up 2-1 and the match remained scoreless until late in the third period where Lyon scored their third and final goal to win 3-1.[10]
The Lions travelled to the Chambéry Métropole to face alpine rivals Chambéry. It was all even at the end of the first period (1-1) but the LHC added a goal in the second and two more in the third to walk away from the match with a clear 4-1 win.[11]
Back in Lyon for a game against Font Romeu, the Lions went almost two periods before scoring. Just one goal in the second period and two more against a weakening Font Romeu in the third period saw the Lions win 3-0.[12]
The fifth round of season 2008 saw Lyon welcome Cholet and the home team scored early to lead 1-0 after the first period. Both teams added one more goal in the second period and Cholet scored once more in the third to tie it all up. Undisciplined play in the final minutes, however, saw two Lions sent to the penalty box and the Cholet Dogs took advantage of their numbers to score the winning goal with two minutes to go. The defeat against Cholet was Lyon's first regular season loss at home in two seasons.[13]
Game six of the season saw the Lions travel to Clermont and face the Boars. It took only a little more than three minutes for Lyon to open the scoring and, after an equaliser by Clermont, the Geoffrey Paillet scored again for the LHC to finish the first period ahead 2-1. Xavier Simoni scored quickly (33 seconds) into the second period and added another 10 minutes later before Clermont scored again, rounding out the second period to a 4-2 scoreline in favour of Lyon. A final period onslaught by the Lions saw five unanswered goals added (1 on power play, 3 in normal time and 1 while a man down) to give the LHC a 9-2 win and return them to the top of the Division 2 table.[14]
Ranking Season 2008 (as of 23 November 2008):[15]
| Rank | Team | Played | Won | Lost | Drawn | Points | Goals For | Goals Against |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cholet | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 44 | 20 |
| 2 | Lyon | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 25 | 10 |
| 3 | Mulhouse | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 47 | 22 |
| 4 | Nantes | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 34 | 26 |
| 5 | Toulouse Blagnac | 7 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 33 | 47 |
| 6 | Clermont | 7 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 29 | 40 |
| 7 | Mont Blanc | 7 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 28 | 46 |
| 8 | La Roche-sur-Yon | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 31 | 31 |
| 9 | Chambéry | 7 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 26 | 38 |
| 10 | Font-Romeu | 7 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 28 | 45 |
The logo of the LHC features a red head of a lion in profile on a white background with the name of the team above (in white on red) and the team's nickname - 'Les Lions' - in white text on a blue background below.
Red, white and blue are both the colours of France and the colours of the city of Lyon.
The LHC play in red, blue, black and white jerseys.
The jersey has changed in recent years from a predominantly white jersey in season 2006 to predominantly red in season 2007 and predominantly blue for season 2008.
The front of the jersey features a stylised image of a lion and bears the logo of the LHC's major sponsor, Flunch.[16]
The jerseys are provided by equipment sponsor Nike Bauer.[17]
LHC media partners include Télé Lyon Métropole, the Tribune de Lyon and Virgin Radio.
LHC matches are a regular feature on Télé Lyon Métropole's Sunday sports review, Dimanche Sports. LHC players are also interviewed frequently for other TLM programs including Lundi Sport.
The Tribune de Lyon produces a pre-season guide to the LHC each year and reports on matches each week.
As well as reporting on LHC matches Virgin Radio provides the background music for matches. While the playlist varies by season current songs on the match-night programme include Sleeping Satellite (Junior Caldera) and No Stress (Laurent Wolf).
Major sponsors of the LHC are Fiat, Flunch, Kinnarps, Metifiot, Virgin Radio, Nike Bauer and Air Canada. The LHC also has a number of minor sponsors and supporting sponsors.
The LHC plays all its home matches at the Patinoire Charlemagne.
Commissioned in 1967 and opened in 1969, the Patinoire Charlemagne's distinctive architectural style incorporating concrete, glass and aluminum saw it placed on the Rhône-Alpes' List of 20th century Buildings of Architectural Interest.[18]
Since May 2006 more than 3.7 million euros have been spent to refurbish the arena and stadium.[19]
Patinoire Charlemagne offers many services apart from the ice hockey rink including medical facilities, a bar, a dance hall, meeting rooms and a press centre.[20]
The Patinoire Charlemagne is also well known for hosting other ice sports, particularly figure skating. Each year the rink hosts the Pôle France de danse sur glace and world champion figure skaters Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat both train at Charlemagne.
The Patinoire Charlemagne was one of the host stadiums for the 2006 European Figure Skating Championships.[21]
The ice is Olympic sized (60 metres long by 30 metres wide) and has a capacity of 4 400 spectators.[22]
Goalkeepers:
Daniel Svedin
Frederick Witte
Defenders:
Joe Cappellano
Martin Croguennec
Nicolas Deshaies
Xavier Simoni
Charles Vouligny
Attackers:
Matthieu Combe
Baptiste Frioux
Anthony Kodyjasz
Arnaud Magallon
Alexander Olsson
Robert Olsson
Paulin Jouanin
Adryan Serrano
Kim Wikstrom (Captain)
While not considered a breeding ground for great players Lyon has been able to both develop young stars and attract former NHL stars to the Patinoire Charlemagne.
LHC alumni have played in the North American National Hockey League (NHL), the French Ligue Magnus and on French Olympic teams.
Among the most notable of LHC past-players are:
As well as the senior team the LHC competes in six levels of junior ice hockey.
A team for players aged less than 9 years.[23]
A team for players aged under 11 years. The team is coached by LHC player Geoffrey Paillet.[24]
A team for players aged under 13 years. The team is coached by LHC player Pascal Margerit.[25]
Two teams - Minimes Excellence and Minime Elite - for players aged under 15 years.[26]
A team for players aged under 18 years.[27]
The official mascot of the LHC is Pepito the Lion. Always in attendance at home games, Pepito wears a Lyon hockey jersey and a straw hat. The nickname of the LHC is 'The Lions' and relates to the symbol of city of Lyon.
The most vocal supporters of the LHC are the Lions Gones. This group of fans are similar to football ultras and share their name with the Bad Gones of the city's Olympique Lyonnais football team.
According to the Tribune de Lyon, despite being a Division 2 team the LHC attracts the highest crowds of any hockey team in France in any league, save for Ligue Magnus teams Grenoble and Rouen.