HC Dynamo Pardubice

HC Dynamo Pardubice
City Pardubice, Czech Republic
League Czech Extraliga
Founded 1923 (1923)
Home arena ČEZ Arena
Colours          
Head coach Pavel Rohlík
Website hcdynamo.cz/
Previous logo

HC Dynamo Pardubice is a professional ice hockey club that plays in the Czech Extraliga. Its home venue is ČEZ Arena located in Pardubice. The club was originally named LTC Pardubice, acquiring its current name at the start of the 2015–16 season.[1]

History

Ice hockey has been played in Pardubice since the beginning of 20th century. Witness of the hockey beginnings in Pardubice was Matiční jezero where so called “Bandy hockey” was played. This style of playing hockey was taken from football – there were 11 players, goals, instead of a puck there was a ball and even the site of the field was exactly like in football. The first match in Canadian style of hockey was played in 1913 on the very same lake. In this match played for Pardubice: Vilém Weiss, Potůček, Reiberg, Přibík, Komeštík and Kubeška.

Organised hockey was founded in Pardubice by Vilém Weiss in 1923 when also hockey club LTC Pardubice was established. Regular competitions started to be played only in season 1930/1931.

After the end of Second World War was in Pardubice installed ice rink and before the Christmas 1947 new winter sports stadium was opened with artificial ice rink. In season 1949/1950 Pardubice won in its division and managed to get to Extra League. New season 1950/1951 entered the team with new name Slavia Pardubice. Since that time the club has never descended from the top hockey competition.

Slavia in the name of the team didn’t stay long. At the end of season 1952/1953 the club changed its name to Dynamo Pardubice. In 50s of 20th century began their careers in Pardubice Bronislav Danda and goalkeeper Vladimír Nadrchal.

The first important success of the club came in 1960. Dynamo Pardubice reached the medals for the first time getting on 3rd place. In this season was also the winter sports stadium finished and provided with a roof.

The following season began the club with a new name again. This time it was Tesla Pardubice. This name stayed without a change for long 31 years until July 1991.

In 1960s the team was with their results somewhere about the middle of the table of results. From Pardubice team got into representation on winter Olympic Games offensive players Jiří Dolana and Stanislav Prýl. In 1965 Zdeněk Špaček became the best scorer in the league with 33 goals. The arrival of the new generation of players was marked by the arrival of junior players, who became champions in 1967. The offensive tri consisting of Bohuslav Šťastný, Jiří Novák and Vladimír Martinec became the stars of Extra League. Wings of this offensive action became on a domestic championship in Prague in 1972 even world champion.

Pardubice team was waiting for its big opportunity until 1973 when they won the basic part and then even play off and so they got the first title in champion league. Vladimír Martinec became the best pass a ball player with 23 assistances and got his first Golden Hockey Stick.

Season 1975/1976 was started by the final duel between Tesla Pardubice and CSKA Moscow. Tesla in match played in Czechoslovakia showed unbelievable performance when they managed to defeat a professional army team with score 3:2. However, the following match played in Moscow was won by CSKA with score 6:1.

After they won the championship title the team stayed among the top three teams in Extra League for following 3 seasons when they reached silver and bronze medal. Goalkeeper Jiří Crha at that time was playing on the position of the second goalkeeper on several top competitions but didn’t get any gold medals and so he decided to emigrate. After that he became the first Czech player to play in NHL.

In the following years there were couple of successful players rather than the whole team being successful as the whole. The offensive trio Vladimír Martinec, Jiří Novák and Bohuslav Šťastný reached another world championship title. Besides that Vladimír Martinec became the best player of Extra League with 28 assistances in 1976 and from the mid-1970s he won Golden Hockey Stick three times. In 1979 Vladimír Martinec even became the best offensive player in the whole League with 42 goals. However, Tesla as a whole wasn’t that successful as the individual players.

Since 1982 the senior team started to be on the upturn. New team members became goalkeeper Dominik Hašek, defender František Musil, offensive players Otakar Janecký and Jiří Šejba. Musil and Šejba won the world championship in Prague in 1985 but at that season they were playing for the army team Dukla Jihlava. After that František Musil emigrated to NHL and Jiří Šejba returned to Tesla Pardubice to celebrate the title of League Champion in the seasons of 1986/87 and 1988/1989. In both these seasons Dominik Hašek won the Golden Hockey Stick and again won this title in 1990. In season 1988/1989 was the best pass a ball player Otakar Janecký with 41 passes and the acknowledgement for the best coach was given to Valdimír Martinec. Another player Ladislav Lubina was awarded the best offensive player of the League in 1991.

Modern history

At the beginning of the 1991-92 season the club changed its name to HC Pardubice. HC Pardubice entered the first Czech competition (1993–94) as a strong team with a mixture of experienced and young players, including goaltender Radovan Biegl, who quickly became one of the best in the league. The team also boasted offensive star Richard Král who led the league with 43 goals. Also impressing was 18-year-old Milan Hejduk who was named top rooke in the Czech League. Pardubice's second-place finish helped coach Marek Sýkora earn coach-of-the-year honors.

The solid finish wasn't to be repeated, as the team slipped to the bottom of the standings and had to defend its place in Extra League in 1996. HC Pardubice gradually lost Král, Biegl and other experienced players who were replaced by juniors, among them forward Petr Sýkora. Hejduk became the Olympic champion at Nagano in 1998 and after that he left for NHL.

In the following season the team got a new young coach Miloš Říha and Pardubice started to improve their performance. In season 1996/1997 Pardubice reached 4th place. Even though there were no medals, individual players were successful. For example, Petr Sýkora was top scorer with 26 goals in 2001.

In 2001 there was a significant reconstruction of the winter sports stadium, re-named Duhová Aréna. In the following two seasons Pardubice juniors managed to win two championship titles. However, Pardubice A team couldn’t get past the first round of play-offs. However, in 2004, Pardubice nearly won the title.

Nine years later the team was playing in the final again, this time against HC Slavia Praha. Slavia defeated Pardubice to claim its first Extra League Title. As a result, Pardubice had to wait for its fourth championship title until 2005, when they won partly thanks to the leadership of captain Jiří Dopita and the performance of Slovakian goalkeeper Ján Lašák, and partly to the cancelled 2004-5 season in the NHL, which freed the offensive trio of Jan Bulis, Michal Mikeska and Milan Hejduk to come to Pardubice. Aleš Hemský was named best player in the play-offs. So after sixteen years the title returned to Pardubice, the city of gingerbread.

During the existence of hockey club there appeared many famous names that are now in the Hall of Fame in Pardubice. The most famous names are: Josef Paleček, Vladimír Martinec, Bohuslav Šťastný, Otakar Janecký, Jiří Šejba, František Musil, Michal Sýkora, Ladislav Lubina, Aleš Hemský, Milan Hejduk and Dominik Hašek.

History of the team name

Team’s successes

Players

Retired numbers

References

  1. ↑ "Pardubičtí fandové po 55 letech opět chodí na Dynamo" (in Czech). HC Dynamo Pardubice. 2015-05-06. Retrieved 2015-05-06.
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