===================================================================

Perhaps it was the experience gathered while guiding the National Hockey League’s Coloardo Avalance to the coveted Stanley Cup title a little over a decade earlier. But SC ZURICH losing its first seven Swiss National League A contests at home to start this 2011/12 season never did get imported trainer BOB HARTLEY down. Neither did finishing an unimpressive seventh in the regular season standings nor even even falling behind to SC Bern 3-1 in the best-of-seven playoff final.

A decisive Game Seven to be played on the road at the imposing PostFinance Arena in Bern? No problem. Apparently, in retrospect, nothing would be allowed to rattle the unflappable Hartley and prevent the 51-year-old Canadian from adding a third championship title to an already-distinguished coaching resume.

Hartley had been out of hockey since being released by the Atlanta Thrashers shortly into the 2007/08 NHL campaign and had been employed as an analyst for French-Canadian television channel Reseau des Sports when the call came in from Switzerland last spring. SC Zurich had recently let go of Swedish trainer BENGT-AKE GUSTAFSSON, the former NHL center for the Wasington Capitals who had steered Tre Kronor to the Olympic gold medal in 2006, after only just one term. A seventh place finish in the regular season coupled with a first round exit from the playoffs was not acceptable so far as ZSC Lions management was concerned.

===========================================================================

===========================================================================
A touch of class from the ‘rookie’ Canadian trainer in Switzerland, then, as the long-serving Finnish netminder ARI SULANDER skates out to replace SC Zurich starting goaltender LUKAS FLUEELER (30) in the very last minute of Game Six at the Hallenstadion during the dramatic National League A final playoff series. It had been, of course, the 43-year-old veteran who backstopped the ZSC Lions to three national titles (in 2000, 2001 and 2008) previously. Although named the Best Goaltender at the 1998 IIHF World Championships hosted by Switzerland, Sulander will be, perhaps, best remembered for his work when Finland defeated Wayne Gretzky and Canada in the Bronze Medal Match at the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Sapporo, Japan.
===========================================================================

Hartley, who claimed his first professional championship piloting the Hershey Bears to the 1998 American Hockey League’s Calder Cup title, had two players follow him across the Atlantic Ocean to sign with SC Zurich last summer. Swizerland national team veteran defenseman SEVERIN BLINDENBACHER was returning home after a season skating in the AHL for the Texas Stars. JEFF TAMBELLINI, the one-time Los Angeles Kings’ first round pick from the University of Michigan, had just departed the 2011 Stanley Cup runners-up Vancouver Canucks.

As has been hallmark of his teams throughout his career, Hartley installed a conservative, defense-first system upon arriving at SC Zurich. But not every move made by the native of Hawkesbury, Ontario, worked out exactly as planned. The attempt to recycle 39-year-old Swedish veteran MICHAEL NYLANDER, who notched a career-high 83 points for the New York Rangers during the 2006/07 NHL campaign, was abandoned just before Christmas after the two-time Olympian was injured following 15 National League A appearances (5 go, 5 as) for ZSC.

Hartley did, however, do very well with the signing of veteran NHL defenseman STEVE MCCARTHY to a try-out contract this past October. The defense corps had been surrendering too many goals and the team were struggling to win even a single game at home, so the first-year SC Zurich trainer turned to the former 1st round NHL Draft pick whom he had coached previously during his time in Atlanta. And McCarthy, for his part, more than certainly rewarded that faith at the end of the day.

========================================================================================

========================================================================================
SC Bern’s imported Canadian center BYRON RITCHIE, the 35-year-old veteran who contested 342 NHL games for the Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers, Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks before originally signing in Switzerland with HC Servette Geneva in the summer of 2008, jostles with SC Zurich defenseman STEVE MCCARTHY (3), who twice earned bronze medals representing Canada at the annual IIHF World Junior Championships.

================================================================================================
Joined in the crease by all five SC BERN skaters on the ice, former New York Rangers farmhand ANDRES AMBUEHL (44) of SC ZURICH eyes the puck in the net behind veteran Switzerland international goaltender MARCO BUEHRER (39) as the match referee at the side of the net observes the action intently. It is the decisive GAME SEVEN of the NATIONAL LEAGUE A PLAYOFF FINAL series featuring visiting SC Zurich and host SC Bern, then. The two sides are deadlocked at one goal apiece and there are exactly 2.5 seconds to play in the third period at the sold-out PostFinance Arena …
===================================================================================================

===================================================================================================
Black-sweatered SC BERN, the second-most successful Swiss ice hockey club since the National League A was first formed in the winter of 1937/38 having won a dozen domestic championships, had stormed to a commanding 3-1 lead after the first four contests in the best of seven series with SC ZURICH. What’s more, the hosts would outshoot their guests by the margin of 28-18 in the dramatic Game Seven showdown on home ice. But all of that amounted to nothing now as the referee acknowledged the puck in the back of the net with 17,131 mostly-disappointed spectators also looking on at the ice rink with the world-renowned standing-room-only section.
===================================================================================================

===================================================================================================
SC Zurich journeyman rearguard STEVE MCCARTHY (3), the first round draft pick (# 23 overall) of the Chicago Black Hawks at the 1999 National Hockey League Draft, had never been much of a goal-scorer over the course of his dozen campaigns in the ranks of professional hockey on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. Indeed, the 31-year-old native of Trail, British Columbia has totaled just 30 goals while skating in a little over 500 regular season contests for clubs in the NHL, American Hockey League, Kontinental Hockey League (Russia), Finland in addition to Switzerland. Nevertheless, McCarthy could not have picked a better moment to score his first-ever ever playoff goal in any country while sensationally catapulting SC Zurich to the 2012 national championship all with one dramatic shot.
===================================================================================================

===================================================================================================
After sufficently impressing following an official three-day tryout period, defenseman STEVE MCCARTHY (3) was only formally signed by Swiss club SC Zurich this past October after a quarter of the National League A season had already been played. Even then, the veteran of 302 National Hockey League games was only offered a three-week contract with absolutely no guarantees from SC Zurich’s imported Canadian trainer BOB HARTLEY, the former Stanley Cup champion coach of the Colorado Avalanche who had also had McCarthy on his bench a few years earlier while with the Atlanta Thrashers. Having made ten appearances for the ZSC Lions and significantly helped to shore up a defense that had been leaking goals for a team that had lost its first six matches at home previously, McCarthy was soon tendered another contract by the Swiss club thru the end of the 2011/12 campaign.

With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to see appreciate the brilliance of that decision by SC Zurich.

============================================================================
POSTFINANCE TOPSKORERS face off as HC Fribourg-Gotteron forward SIMON GAMACHE (left), the 30-year-old Quebec native who skated in 48 National Hockey League contests for the Atlanta Thrashers, Nashville Predators, St. Louis Blues and Toronto Maple Leafs in his career, and SC Bern pivot BYRON RITCHIE, the 34-year-old from British Columbia who participated in 342 NHL games for the Carolina Hurricane, Florida Panthers, Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks, wait for the National League A linesman to drop the puck during a match earlier this 2011/12 season at the Patinoire Saint-Leonard rink in Fribourg, Switzerland.
===========================================================================

It is not very hard at all for any Swiss ice hockey spectator, be it at the rink in person or at home watching on television, to simply identify the leading point-getter — easily recognizable by the yellow helmet adorned with red flames as well as the distinct, number-less sweater — for any given National League A team in any given match at any given time over the course of a long season.

Ever since the start of the 2002/03 campaign, the POSTFINANCE TOPSKORER jersey is worn by the current scoring leading for each team at every match in the Swiss top flight. Indeed, this same unique policy, which is found nowhere else in Europe, is also applicable in the National League B, as well. The regular season scoring champion for each club then earns the right to wear the Topskorer sweater throughout the entire playoff schedule.

The sponsor of the program is the financial services company PostFinance, the fifth-largest retail financial institution in Switzerland. For every point any given player wearing the PostFinance Topskorer shirt registers, PostFinance donates 200 Swiss francs to the applicable NLA team (or 100 Swiss francs to an NLB outfit) with the stipulation that the money must be used specifically applied the respective clubs’ youth programs.

PostFinance, originally founded in 1906 and not an actual bank but rather a component of the national mail carrier SWISS POST, also makes a matching contribution to the Schweizerischer Eishockeyverband (SEHV – Swiss Ice Hockey Association) for the development of the national team’s youth programs.

=====================================================================================

=====================================================================================
Switzerland senior national team winger and 2012 National League A PostFinance Topskorer DAMIEN BRUNNER of EV Zug, the first homegrown ice hockey player in 30 years to win the scoring title in the domestic top flight, beats HC Lugano netminder BENJAMIN CONZ (91), the number one goaltender for Switzerland at both the 2010 and 2011 IIHF World Junior Championships, during a shootout this past October at the Bossard Arena in Zug.
=====================================================================================

POSTFINANCE TOPSKORER
========================

60 pts – 2011/12 … Damien BRUNNER (Switz), EV Zug
53 pts – 2010/11 … Glen METROPOLIT (Can), EV Zug
65 pts – 2009/10 … Randy ROBITAILLE (Can), HC Lugano
72 pts – 2008/09 … Juraj KOLNIK (Svk), HC Servette Geneva
72 pts – 2007/08 … Erik WESTRUM (USA), HC Ambri-Piotta
66 pts – 2006/07 … Simon GAMACHE (Can), SC Bern
66 pts – 2005/06 … Glen METROPOLIT (Can), HC Lugano
67 pts – 2004/05 … Randy ROBITAILLE (Can), SC Zurich
72 pts – 2003/04 … Ville PELTONEN (Fin), HC Lugano
72 pts – 2002/03 … Petteri NUMMELIN (Fin), HC Lugano

===========================================================================

===========================================================================
Canadian import RANDY ROBITAILLE of HC Lugano (above) was the first player ever to repeat as the end-of-the-year PostFinance Topskorer award for the National League A in Switzerland; the 36-year-old product of Miami (Ohio) University who took part in 531 National Hockey League games for no fewer than nine different NHL teams recently completed his 15th professional season playing in the Kontinental Hockey League for modest Russian club Metallurg Novokuznetsk

===============================================================

The current playoff format of the 12-team NATIONAL LEAGUE A in SWITZERLAND has remained constant since it was first implemented during the 1988/89 season. The top eight teams qualify for the post-season and are paired off in best-of-seven-games quarterfinal series. Naturally, the knockout rounds continue until only two sides are left standing.

Although historically-successful HC DAVOS have won the most domestic titles in Switzerland since the National League A was first formed in the late 1930s, it is actually SC BERN — who have led all of Europe in attendance the past ten years consecutively — who are the club that have captured the most national championships (six) since the current playoff format was adopted in die Schweiz.

Despite the fact that the regular season champion has went on to win the National League A playoff title on exactly nine occasions in what is now 24 years, either the first or second place team has ultimately triumphed in the post-season two-thirds of that same time. This year in the Swiss Alps, however, it was underdogs who had their day in the domestic playoffs. None of the top four clubs for this 2011/12 regular season, including table-toppers EV ZUG or even defending 2011 champion HC Davos, would reach a final round which featured a remarkable tussle of the two lowest-seeded teams ever to meet on Switzerland’s biggest ice hockey stage.

===============================================================

===============================================================
Exactly half of the 12 National League A titles won by well-supported SC BERN (above) have been attained since the current post-season playoff format in place today was originally inaugurated at the conclusion of the 1988/89 regular season; Schlittschuh Club Bern have reached the playoff final in 10 of the past 24 seasons, a feat unmatched by any other Swiss club.
===============================================================

SC BERN finished the regular season in fifth place after firing Canadian trainer LARRY HURAS, the one-time New York Rangers defenseman who had steered the Swiss club to the 2010 National League A title, late this past October and promoting assistant ANTTI TORMANEN, the former Finland national team forward who first skated in 50 National Hockey League games for the Ottawa Senators and then later earned an Olympic bronze medal at the 1998 Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan.

SC ZURICH, who skated to three National League A titles in a nine-year stretch from 2000 to 2008 after posting just three national championships in the seven decades since the club was first founded in 1930, ended the regular season in seventh place under the direction of imported Canadian trainer BOB HARTLEY, the former Stanley Cup winner for the National Hockey League’s Colorado Avalanche on his first tour of duty in Switzerland.

Both clubs would see to it that, for the fifth time in the last seven years, the final series of the National League A playoffs was extended to the maximum seven games.

===========================================================================

===========================================================================
Host SC ZURICH (left, blue) and visiting SC BERN (right, white) line-up on their respective blue lines just prior to the start of Game Six of the 2012 National League A Final before a reported crowd of 11,200 spectators at the venerable Hallenstadion in Switzerland’s largest city.

==================================================
Officially known by the English title of “NATIONAL LEAGUE A” since the start of the 2007-08 schedule, the elite ice hockey circuit traditionally referred to in German as “Nationalliga A”, in French as “Ligue Nationale A” or in Italian as “Lega Nazionale A” was originally formed in multilingual SWITZERLAND to start the 1937-38 season; of course, the very first national championship title in die Schweiz was awarded in 1916.
==================================================

HC DAVOS, the eastern club who once employed the legendeary HERB BROOKS for a season after the former University of Minnesota head coach guided the unheralded United States team to a spectacular gold medal triumph at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid, are the Rekordmeister in die Schweiz having won 20 domestic titles since the National League A was officially created; the team founded in 1921 also won another 10 national championships in Switzerland prior to the milestone 1937/38 campaign.

2011/12 National League A … (50-game regular season)
=============================================

98 points – 24 wins … 8 otw … 10 otl …… EV Zug
98 points – 27 wins … 7 otw ….. 3 otl …… HC Davos
94 points – 26 wins … 6 otw ….. 4 otl …… HC Fribourg-Gotteron
91 points – 27 wins … 2 otw ….. 6 otl …… EHC Kloten
87 points – 23 wins … 6 otw ….. 6 otl …… SC Bern
79 points – 21 wins … 5 otw ….. 6 otl …… HC Lugano
77 points – 19 wins … 8 otw ….. 4 otl …… SC Zurich
68 points – 19 wins … 4 otw ….. 3 otl …… EHC Biel-Bienne
67 points – 16 wins … 5 otw ….. 9 otl …… HC Servette Geneva
52 points – 13 wins … 5 otw ….. 3 otl …… SC Langnau
49 points – 10 wins … 6 otw ….. 7 otl …… HC Ambri-Piotta
40 points – 12 wins … 1 otw ….. 2 otl …… Rapperswil-Jona Lakers

===========================================================================

============================================================================
EV Zug right wing DAMIEN BRUNNER (middle), the 26-year-old who will be making his second career appearance for Switzerland at the annual IIHF World Championships this spring in Scandanavia, is the first Swiss-born ice hockey player in three decades to claim the scoring title in the domestic elite league; Brunner had not even been born 30 years ago when EHC Arosa’s Guido Lindemann last accomplished the feat during the 1981/82 campaign.
============================================================================

2011/12 National League A
PostFinance Topskorer chart
========================

60 pts … 24 go – 36 as … Damien BRUNNER, EV Zug
51 pts … 27 go – 24 as … Julien SPRUNGER, HC Fribourg-Gotteron
50 pts … 14 go – 36 as … Jaroslav BEDNAR (Cze), HC Lugano
49 pts … 21 go – 28 as … Petr SYKORA (Cze), HC Davos
45 pts … 23 go – 22 as … Jeff TAMBELLINI (Can), SC Zurich
45 pts … 20 go – 25 as … Simon GAMACHE (Can), HC Friboug-Gotteron
44 pts ….. 9 go – 35 as … Tommi SANTALA (Fin), EHC Kloten
43 pts … 22 go – 21 as … Byron RITCHIE (Can), SC Bern
42 pts … 15 go – 27 as … Benny PLUESS, HC Fribourg-Gotteron
42 pts … 14 go – 28 as … Kurtis MCLEAN (Can), SC Langnau
41 pts … 26 go – 15 as … Petr TATICEK (Cze), HC Davos
41 pts … 21 go – 20 as … Michael LINIGER, EHC Kloten
41 pts ….. 6 go – 35 as … Micki DUPONT, EHC Kloten
40 pts … 10 go – 30 as … Reto VAN ARX, HC Davos
39 pts … 18 go – 21 as … Kevin ROMY, HC Lugano
39 pts … 16 go – 23 as … Pavel ROSA (Cze), HC Fribourg-Gotteron
39 pts … 15 go – 24 as … Bjorn-Olaf CHRISTEN, EV Zug
37 pts … 16 go – 21 as … Josh HOLDEN, EV Zug
37 pts ….. 8 go – 29 as … Andrei BYKOV, HC Fribourg-Gotteron
36 pts … 20 go – 16 as … Viktor STANCESCU, EHC Kloten
36 pts … 16 go – 20 as … Kimmo RINTANEN, HC Lugano
36 pts … 15 go – 21 as … Glen METROPOLIT (Can), EV Zug
36 pts … 14 go – 22 as … Pascal PELLETIER (Can), SC Langnau
36 pts ….. 8 go – 28 as … Christian DUBE (Can), HC Fribourg-Gotteron
35 pts … 19 go – 16 as … Peter SEJNA (Svk), HC Davos

26-year-old Switzerland Olympic right wing JULIEN SPRUNGER, the 4th round pick (# 117 overall) of the Minnesota Wild at the 2004 National Hockey League Draft who has appeared thus far at five major international tournaments (30 ga, 7 go 10 pts) for his homeland, led all players in the National League A with 27 goals scored for HC Fribourg-Gotteron this season.

35-year-old winger JAROSLAV BEDNAR, the veteran Czech Republic international who scored 10 goals in 117 NHL game for the Los Angeles Kings and Florida Panthers before returning to Europe several years ago, finished as the highest-scoring imported skater in Switzerland after transferring from HC Lugano to 2011 National League A champion HC Davos this past summer.

Journeyman MICKI DUPONT of EHC Kloten, the 32-year-old who participated in 23 NHL games (Calgary Flames, Pittsburgh Penquins, St. Louis Blues) in five years of North American professional hockey and also added the two German domestic titles over three winters spent with Eisbaeren Berlin before signing with Swiss club EV Zug in the summer of 2008, led all National League A defenseman in scoring for a second consecutive season.

====================================================================================================

====================================================================================================
France Olympic goaltender CRISTOBAL HUET (39) of HC Fribourg-Gotteron, the 36-year-old veteran who contested 273 National Hockey League games in seven seasons with the Los Angeles Kings, Montreal Canadiens, Washington Capitals and Chicago Black Hawks while earning a coveted Stanley Cup ring in the summer of 2010, faces Rapperswil-Jona Lakers forwards JORDY MURRAY (28), the 22-year-old former University of Wisconsin winger who is the son of long-time NHL bench boss Andy Murray (Huet’s head coach with the Kings), and LOIC BURKHALTER during the National League A match at the Diners Club Arena in Rapperswil this past February.
====================================================================================================

2011/12 National League A
goaltending (minimum 20 games)
===========================

2.12 avg – .920 sv pct – 39 ga ….. Cristobal HUET (Fra), HC Fribourg-Gotteron
2.17 avg – .930 sv pct – 50 ga ….. Tobias STEPHAN, HC Servette Geneva
2.17 avg – .913 sv pct – 48 ga ….. Ronnie RUEGER, EHC Kloten
2.24 avg – .931 sv pct – 50 ga ….. Leonardo GENONI, HC Davos
2.30 avg – .915 sv pct – 41 ga ….. Lukas FLUEELER, SC Zurich
2.36 avg – .909 sv pct – 38 ga ….. Marco BUEHRER, SC Bern
2.37 avg – .924 sv pct – 43 ga ….. Jussi MARKKANEN (Fin), EV Zug
2.44 avg – .916 sv pct – 49 ga ….. Reto BERRA, EHC Biel-Bienne
2.47 avg – .903 sv pct – 24 ga ….. Nolan SCHAEFER (Can), HC Ambri-Piotta
2.73 avg – .907 sv pct – 50 ga ….. Benjamin CONZ, HC Lugano
3.07 avg – .898 sv pct – 40 ga ….. Robert ESCHE (USA), SC Langnau
3.14 avg – .901 sv pct – 25 ga ….. Thomas BAEUMLE, HC Ambri-Piotta

In the final season of a four-year contract worth $ 22.5 million dollars, two-time France Olympic netminder CRISTOBAL HUET spent a second consecutive campaign between the pipes for HC Fribourg-Gotteron on loan from the National Hockey League’s 2010 Stanley Cup champion Chicago Black Hawks and finished this term with the lowest goals-against-average in the Swiss National League A.

Huet, who will be making his 10th career appearance at a major international tournament as a member of head coach Dave Henderson’s French squad at the annual IIHF World Championships in Scandanavia this spring, significantly lowered the 2.86 goals-against-average while slightly improving the .919 save percentage numbers he posted for HC Fribourg-Gotteron a year ago after first being farmed out by the Black Hawks organization.

28-year-old TOBIAS STEPHAN, who fashioned 11 NHL appearances in three years with the Dallas Stars before returning to Switzerland in the summer of 2009, had a standout season despite competing for a HC Servette Geneva side that missed the playoffs by a single point. The former EHC Kloten goalkeeper also figures to be first choice between the pipes once again for trainer Sean Simpson’s Swiss national team at the IIHF World Championships in Scandanavia, as well. LEONARDO GENONI of 2011 National League A champion HC Davos, the 24-year-old who served as number two behind Stephan at the annual World Championships a year ago hosted by Slovakia, narrowly led the top flight in save percentage this season but has declined his invitation and will not appear for die Schweiz in Scandanavia.

=================================================================================

For no less than a 10th consecutive season, the well-supported Swiss Nationalliga A outfit SCHLITTSCHUH CLUB BERN led all European professional ice hockey teams at the box office in terms of average attendance per contest. This in a year which saw a record seven teams in five different countries surpass the noteworthy milestone of at least 10,000 spectators on average. The German Bundesliga club Koelner Haie (Cologne Sharks) were the last team other than the 12-times national champion of Switzerland to lead the entire continent at the gate but, indeed, only just beat out SC Bern by a mere 64 spectators to claim the honor at the end of the 2001-02 campaign.

With the National Hockey League regular season having just ended, it is now known that SC Bern also beat eight National Hockey League clubs in average attendance. That figure represents more than 1/4 of all NHL teams for this 2011/12 campaign. Although the average for the Swiss side dropped slightly to 15,779 per game this season, this total was also two and a half times more than the average gate for a Nationalliga A game in Switzerland this term.

SC BERN (Switzerland) ……………………………….. 15,779
DYNAMO MINSK (Belarus) …………………………… 14,193
EISBAEREN BERLIN (Germany) …………………….. 14,073
KOELNER HAIE (Germany) ………………………….. 10,494
VASTRA FROLUNDA GOTEBORG (Sweden) …….. 10,482
SKA ST. PETERSBURG (Russia) …………………… 10,126
ADLER MANNHEIM (Germany) ………………………. 10,018
HAMBURG FREEZERS (Germany) …………………… 9,221
JOKERIT HELSINKI (Finland) ………………………….. 9,173
HC AVANGARD OMSK (Russia) ………………………. 9,143

====================================================================================================

====================================================================================================

The National Hockey League, which was first established in 1917, has always advertised its product as the finest in all the world. Certainly, the multi-million dollar salaries paid to players in the NHL provides signifcant weight to that promotional claim. And yet for this 2011/12 season, the traditionally-popular Swiss club SC BERN, who were officially founded on the first day of 1931, still managed to outdraw the Colorado Avalanche, New Jersey Devils, Winnipeg Jets, Anaheim Ducks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, New York Islanders and Phoenix Coyotes.

======================================================================================================
Situated on the predominantly-hilly, so-called Swiss Plateau in the national capital city is the home rink to the incredibly popular professional ice hockey club, SCHLITTSCHUH CLUB BERN, that has now boasted the best per-game attendance compared to all others throughout the whole of Europe for the past 10 consecutive years in a row — the POST FINANCE ARENA.
================================================================================

================================================================================
The Post Finance Arena is the largest rink in Switzerland as well as one of the largest facilities used for ice hockey in all of Europe. The rink was originally opened in 1967 as the Eisstadion Allmend and later assumed its current name as part of a sponsorship deal prior to the start of the 2007/08 season. In light of the arena’s age and with the 2009 IIHF World Championships scheduled to take place in die Schweiz, the stadium owners in Bern invested 105 million Swiss francs (CHF – roughly $ 114 million U.S. dollars today) for extension and restoration of the building. The work was completed prior to the start of the 2008/09 campaign with the majority of the construction focused on renovation and expansion of the so-called VIP Zone, which now includes 21 luxury boxes.
======================================================================================================

======================================================================================================
The official capacity for the POST FINANCE ARENA in Bern would be 17,131 at present. Oddly enough, the Swiss stadium actually still has only 6,709 fixed seats. But the facility does host a world-famous standing-room-only section that is traditionally well-stocked with passionate SC Bern supporters for each and every Nationalliga A game. One notable feature of the eye-opening second level (standing-room-only section) is the very steep incline; the above photo provides a good look at the railings in the s.r.o. section and captures youth players at practice.
====================================================================================================

====================================================================================================
A bird’s eye view from way up in the so-called “rafters” of the world-famous, second level standing-room-only section of the Post Finance Arena in Bern.
=============================================================

=============================================================
Finnish Olympic silver medalist REIJO RUOTSALAINEN (above), the diminutive, smooth-skating rearguard who represented the New York Rangers at the 1986 NHL All-Star Game and earned two Stanley Cup rings with the powerful Edmonton Oilers in 1987 and 1990, also contributed to another three Nationalliga A titles with Schlittschuh Club Bern in six seasons spread out over four different tours of duty for the capital city side in Switzerland.
===================================================================

===================================================================
RYAN CALLAHAN (24) of the New York Rangers, who went on to collect a silver medal with the United States at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, goes to the forehand and beats Metallurg Magnitogorsk goaltender ANDREI MEZIN, the three-time Belarus Olympic netminder who backstopped his country to a famous upset of Sweden in the quarterfinal round at the 2002 Winter Games at Salt Lake City, with 20 seconds remaining to allow the National Hockey League representative to down their Russian counterparts in the VICTORIA CUP match staged in early October of 2008 at the Post Finance Arena in Bern, Switzerland.
===================================================================

===================================================================
DAN FRITSCHE of the New York Rangers, who scored one of the goals that allowed the Original Six NHL side to rally from a deficit of three and defeat Russian Super League club Metallurg Magnitogorsk, holds the Victoria Cup trophy aloft in front of the official crowd of 13,749 at the Post Finance Arena in early October of 2008. The native of Ohio, who had been acquired by the Blueshirts after skating in 187 NHL games for the Columbus Blue Jackets the previous three years, only played 16 regular season games and scored just one goal with the Rangers before being traded to the Minnesota Wild in late January of 2009. Fritsche has spent the last two seasons lacing his skates in Switzerland again, this time with HC Servette Geneva.
===========================================================================================

===========================================================================================
Russia captain ALEXEI MOROZOV (95) of Ak Bars Kazan, who was once chosen in the first round of the 1995 National Hockey League Draft and later skated 451 NHL games over six seasons for the Pittsburgh Penquins, observes as United States forward JOE PAVELSKI (8) of the San Jose Sharks goes flying during the 2009 IIHF World Championships semi-final contest at the Post Finance Arena in Bern, Switzerland; a third period goal by SKA St. Petersburg center Konstantin Gorovikov with less than two minutes remaining propelled eventual gold-medalist Russia to a 3-2 victory over the United States, who ended the tournament in fourth place.
====================================================================================================

====================================================================================================
The Zamboni and its driver begin to take laps at the Post Finance Arena in the capital city of Switzerland to prepare for the third game of the best-of-seven Nationalliga A Playoff Final between host SC Bern and visiting SC Zurich this past Saturday just ahead of the Easter Holiday.
====================================================================================================

===============================================================
After scoring two goals to help Romania pull off a monumental 5-4 upset over the United States (a team which included several National Hockey League and World Hockey Association professional players) at the 1977 IIHF World Championships in Vienna, Austria, national team star DORU TUREANU of Dinamo Bucharest was reportedly offered a lucrative contract by the contemporary NHL powerhouse Montreal Canadiens, the star-studded cast in the middle of winning four Stanley Cup titles in succession.
===============================================================

Spearheaded by a hat trick from national team star DORU TUREANU of Dinamo Bucharest on the final day of the competition, the Romanians clinched the mythical championship of the B Pool tournament at the 1976 Winter Olympic Games with a dramatic victory. A third goal of the contest from Tureanu with just over four minutes remaining in the match enabled ROMANIA to edge Switzerland 4-3 at the Messehalle in Innsbruck and finish two points clear in the standings ahead of host nation Austria. Truth be told, the Romanians, who only lost narrowly to neighboring Yugoslavia, would have done with a draw in their final B Pool round-robin match against the Swiss.

In part because the matches, themselves, had been traditionally attended poorly over the years, the B Pool tournament was eliminated entirely from the Olympic program after the 1976 Winter Games at Innsbruck; the ice hockey competition for the 1980 Winter Olympic Games to be held at Lake Placid, however, was expanded to include twelve nations at the final tournament.

B POOL final standings
——————————–
4 wins, 1 losses … 23/15 gf/a …… ROMANIA
3 wins, 2 losses … 18/14 gf/a …… AUSTRIA
3 wins, 2 losses … 20/18 gf/a …… JAPAN
3 wins, 2 losses … 22/19 gf/a …… YUGOSLAVIA
2 wins, 3 losses … 24/22 gf/a …… SWITZERLAND
0 wins, 5 losses … 19/38 gf/a …… BULGARIA

leading scorers (B Pool contests only)
—————————————————-
5 go – 5 as … 10 pts … Doru TUREANU, Romania
5 go – 3 as ….. 8 pts … Franc ZBONTAR, Yugoslavia
5 go – 2 as ….. 7 pts … Toni NEININGER, Switzerland
4 go – 3 as ….. 7 pts … Hideo SAKURAI, Japan
3 go – 4 as ….. 7 pts … Eduard PANA, Romania

===============================================================
The Tyrolean Alps which surround the Inn Valley provide the backdrop in this magnificent photo of the MESSE INNSBRUCK complex, the site where the final B Pool tournament was contested for the hockey competition at the 1976 Winter Olympic Games hosted by the city of Innsbruck, Austria.
===============================================================

With the schedule of the main ice arena in the Austrian Alpine city of Innsbruck, the OLYMPIAHALLE, already completely full as a result of figure skating and ice hockey (A Pool) competitions, the organizers for the 1976 Winter Olympic Games, as had been done a dozen years earlier when the city had first played host to the Winter Olympics, once again made use of the MESSEHALLE facility to stage the tournament for the B Pool in ice hockey.

The B Pool, to review, was comprised of the six countries — Austria, Bulgaria, Japan, Romania, Switzerland and Yugoslavia — that had lost their respective Olympic qualification matches; those particular contests, of course, had been staged at the much larger Olympiahalle in Innsbruck on the second and third day of February in 1976.

========================================

========================================

Located within walking distance of the city’s historic old town center, the Messe Innsbruck is a convention center complex that has always and continues to occasionally host sporting events in addition to a more traditional program of business exhibitions and trade shows, corporate and product presentations, art exhibitions and social events, etc.

============================================

============================================

The Messe Innsbruck complex, a site which now consists of 40,000 square meters and, since 2004, is owned and operated by a local company known as the Congress and Messe Innsbruck GmbH, underwent an extensive renovation which began in 2010 and was completed in the following year.

===========================================================================

===========================================================================
Messe Innsbruck, Curling, 2012 Youth Winter Olympics
===========================================================================

In December of 2008, the decision was made to have the city of Innsbruck host the very first-ever Winter Youth Olympic Games. A very logical conlusion considering all the requisite infrastructure to stage the athletic events was already well in place for the historical Alpine location. Although the ice hockey competition was held at the Tirol Wasserkraft Arena at the modern Olympiaworld complex, the Messehalle Innsbruck, once again, played its part.

===============================================================

==========================================================================

The cozy EISARENA SALZBURG, with its official capacity of 3,200 spectators for ice hockey matches, was actually originally opened more than half a century ago in 1960. And the fourth-largest city in the central European nation of AUSTRIA first claimed a team in country’s elite circuit, the Bundesliga, to begin the 1972/73 campaign. But the spectacular emergence of EC RED BULL SALZBURG as a legitimate national powerhouse which has posted four domestic titles over the past six seasons is a very recent phenomenon that occured only in the last decade, itself.

The world-renowned Austrian energy drink manufacturer RED BULL GMBH had its first involvement with professional ice hockey during the 1987/88 campaign as a sponsor of the ill-fated Eishockey Club Salzburg. This particular squad featured aging international stars SERGEI KAPUSTIN and VIKTOR SHALIMOV, a pair of gold medalists with the Soviet Union national team at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, and finished a respectable fourth place in the league standings. Nevertheless, though, EC Salzburg would fold after the season.

===============================================================

===============================================================
Chicago native ROBBIE EARL (10), who won an NCAA championship with the University of Wisconsin in 2006 and skated in 47 National Hockey League contests for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Minnesota Wild in five seasons as a North American professional before crossing The Pond to play in Europe for the first time ever this past summer, finished the 2011/12 campaign as the highest-scoring import on the roster of former NHL head coach Pierre Page’s EC Red Bull Salzburg.
===============================================================

EC Salzburg would be revived with the merger of the smaller EC Morzg and EC Tiefenbach clubs prior to the start of the 1995/96 domestic schedule. This new enterprise was financially-backed by the local KAINDL FLOORING KG company, a world leader in wood products, laminate and wood flooring, but the relationship would not last long. Red Bull GmbH decided once again to invest in the club and became the major corporate sponsor prior to the 2000/01 season with the second division team taking on the name of EC THE RED BULLS SALZBURG.

To start the 2004/05 season, the club was completely taken over and totally restructured by the Red Bull GmbH company, which was by now also the sole owner of a soccer team in the Austrian Bundesliga. Major changes in Salzburg including improvements to the ice hockey facilities and other club infrastructure soon followed. Significantly, a farm club was founded to compete in the Austrian second division (die Nationalliga) and provide experience for younger players graduating from the new, beefed-up youth team program.

==========================================================================

==========================================================================
Montreal native RAMZI ABID (19), who was originally drafted by the Colorado Avalanche in the 2nd round (# 28 overall) of the 1998 National Hockey League Draft before skating in 68 NHL games for the Phoenix Coyotes, Pittsburgh Penquins, Atlanta Thrashers and Nashville Predators, suited up for first division clubs in Switzerland, Russia and Sweden before signing for EC Red Bull Salzburg in the summer of 2010.
==========================================================================

To help better project its corporate identity as the Alpine city celebrated a team back in the top flight of Austrian ice hockey (now known as the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga) for the first time since the late 1980s, the club name was changed also once again to its current moniker of EC RED BULL SALZBURG at the beginning of the 2004/05 campaign.

EC Red Bull Salzburg finished at the very bottom of the standings on its return to the Austrian elite league but the accomplished HARDY NILSSON, who had last been serving as the national team trainer of Sweden from 2000 thru the World Cup of Hockey in 2004, was hired and led a startling transformation the very next season. Nilsson, who previously led three different German clubs (EC Cologne, Munich Barons, EG Dusseldorf) to a total of five domestic titles before steering Swedish elite league club IF Djurgarden Stockholm to a pair of back-to-back championships to help ring in the start of the new millenium, guided his latest charges straight to the top of the 2005/06 regular season chart. Although the club did fall to EC SV Villach in the playoff final, Nilsson and EC Red Bull Salzburg rebounded to claim a first-ever Austrian title in 2007 with a decisive victory in a rematch of the previous term’s playoff final.

Nilsson was subsequently moved upstairs into a front office position for EC Red Bull Salzburg and former NHL head coach PIERRE PAGE was brought on board for the 2007/08 schedule. The native of Saint-Hermas in the Canadian province of Quebec, who had plenty of experience behind the bench with the Minnesota North Stars, Quebec Nordiques, Calgary Flames and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim as well as Swiss club HC Ambri Piotta, arrived in Austria after five seasons and two German domestic titles (2005 and 2006) with Eisbaren Berlin. Page, who has been instrumental with the development of a program entitled “International Ice Hockey Development Model” being run out of the team’s Thalgau training center, brought about another championship in his first term with EC Red Bull Salzburg and also added two more in 2010 and 2011.

==========================================================================

==========================================================================
Austria international defenseman MATTHIAS TRATTNIG (51) of EC Red Bull Salzburg, the well-traveled 32-year-old veteran who won an NCAA championship with the University of Maine a year after being chosen by the Chicago Black Hawks in the 4th round (# 94 overall) of the 1998 National Hockey League Draft and later spent the 2004/05 season with the Syracuse Crunch in the American Hockey League, collides with AC Klagenfurt’s Austria international left wing DAVID SCHULLER (45) during the quarterfinal round of the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga playoffs completed earlier this season.
==========================================================================

This season, EC Red Bull Salzburg and Page enjoyed the luxury of two former NHL All-Star Game participants who both won the Stanley Cup with the powerhouse Edmonton Oilers in the spring of 1987 — Finnish defenseman REIJO RUOTSALAINEN and Swedish forward KENT NILSSON — assisting on the coaching staff. Ruotsalainen, who also collected an Olympic silver medal for Finland at the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary, has been in the Austrian Alps with Page since 2007. Nilsson, the first European player to ever post 100 points or more in a single National Hockey League season, was in his first year as an assistant coach in Austria this term after many years functioning as an NHL scout for the Oilers.

Despite this and the presence of highly-experienced NHL goaltender MARTY TURCO in between the pipes, EC Red Bull Salzburg failed to achieve an unprecented third consecutive E.B.E.L. title for their energy drink paymasters this season. Courageous EC AC Klagenfurt rallied from down a two games-to-one disadvantage to win the best-of-seven quarterfinal series with their Tyrolean opponents. Still, four titles in six years is not such terrible stuff — no matter what country the club is skating in!

==========================================================================

==========================================================================
North Vancouver native DOUG LYNCH, the 28-year-old rearguard who was drafted in the 2nd round (# 43 overall) by the Edmonton Oilers at the 2001 National Hockey League Draft and later logged two NHL games in his rookie season of professional hockey, originally signed to play for EC Red Bull Salzburg in Austria after spending the 2006/07 campaign with the Peoria Rivermen in the American Hockey League.
==========================================================================

The interesting list of players with NHL experience prior to suiting up for Austrian club EC Red Bull Salzburg since the start of the 2004/05 season includes a few former NHL first round draft picks in addition to some Olympic alumni, as well :

fw … Jay PANDOLFO ………….. United States
fw … Marty REASONER ……….. United States
fw … Eric CHOUINARD …………. Canada
gk … Robbie TALLAS ………….. Canada
fw … Juha LIND ………………….. Finland – (’98, ’02)
fw … Darby HENDRICKSON …… United States – (’94)
fw … Frank BANHAM …………… Canada
gk … Arturs IRBE ……………….. Latvia – (’02, ’06)
gk … Reinhard DIVIS …………… Austria – (’98, ’02)
fw … Josh GREEN ……………… Canada
fw … Don MACLEAN …………… Canada
fw … Craig JOHNSON ………….. United States – (’94)
df … Ric JACKMAN ……………… Canada
df … Doug LYNCH ……………… Canada
df … Remi ROYER ……………… Canada
df … Brad FAST ………………… Canada
fw … Darryl BOOTLAND ……….. Canada
df … Mike SIKLENKA …………… Canada
fw … Jonathan FILEWICH ……… Canada
fw … Steven REGIER …………… Canada
gk … David LENEVEU ………….. Canada
fw … Ramzi ABID ………………… Canada
fw … Martin ST. PIERRE ……….. Canada
fw … Danny BOIS ……………….. Canada
df … Shaun HESHKA …………… Canada
fw … Robbie EARL ……………… United States
fw … Jeremy WILLIAMS ………… Canada
df … Rob DAVISON …………….. Canada
gk … Josh TJORDMAN …………. Canada
gk … Marty TURCO …………….. Canada – (’06)