EC KAC

Klagenfurt AC
City Klagenfurt, Carinthia, Austria
League Erste Bank Eishockey Liga
Founded 1909
Home arena Stadthalle Klagenfurt
(Capacity: 5,500)
Colors

Red, White

         
Owner(s) Dr. Will Schasche
General manager Oliver Pilloni
Head coach Mike Pellegrims
Website EC KAC
Franchise history
1909– EC KAC
Championships
Austrian Champions 30 (1934, 1935, 1952, 1955, 1960, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1991, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2009, 2013)

EC KAC, or the Klagenfurt Athletic Sports Club, is a professional ice hockey team in the Austrian Erste Bank Hockey League. The team plays their home games in Klagenfurt, Carinthia, Austria at Stadthalle Klagenfurt. EC KAC has won the most Austrian ice hockey Championships, a total of 30 times including 11 consecutive titles from 1964 to 1974, and four consecutive from 1985 to 1988. Most recently they won it in 2013

History

The Klagenfurt Athletics Sports Club was founded on 18 September 1909 as an association.[1] In 1919 the first attempts to makeup a Hockey sector were trialled with an initial two-year apprenticeship from 1923 to 1925, before Hockey as a fully fledged association was established in 1926.[2]

In 1926 EC KAC joined the Austrian Ice Hockey Federation. At that time there were no uniforms, and hockey was played in gym shorts, soccer socks, football jerseys, and as skates were called 'Friesen' which used shoes made of wood with a metal bar as a runner, which were laced with leather straps on the feet. The puck was initially made from two nailed together soles of women's shoes. Much depended more on the ingenuity and dedication of the players, and the preparation of the playing surface snow at the Kreuzberglteich.

In the 1933–34 season, EC KAC won their first league title and thus stopped the almost uninterrupted dominance of the Vienna Ice Skating Association. It marked the first time the title had not been awarded to a team from Vienna. The Second World War interrupted play abruptly and post-war it took a long time to get the league back functioning properly. However, many stars from the KAC's first league title success could again be counted to be the nucleus and further accelerated the rise of EC KAC well into the 1950s.

Between 1952 and 1960, KAC managed three further League titles, in a period in which Innsbruck EV were prominent in the Austrian Championship. With games still played outdoors and susceptible to inclement weather, on 22 November 1959, the Stadthalle Klagenfurt complex opened, which after several modifications is still in use today as the venue of EC KAC.

At the turn of the 1960s with the influx of influential players such as Dieter Kalt Snr and Sepp Puschnig, KAC started the seed in dominating the Austrian Championship from 1964 to 1980, in which the title went fifteen times to Klagenfurt. The only competitor in that time was ATSE Graz, which broke up title championships in 1975 and 1978.

During this time, the EC KAC also partook in several European Cups. They first played in the 1965–66 season, and in the following 1966–67 season, the team reached the semi-finals and had to compete, as in the following season, against ZLK Brno. In the 1969–70 season, EC KAC played as beaten finalists against HC CSKA Moscow. Overall, EC KAC participated nineteen times in the tournament, only two participations fewer than the record holder CSKA Moscow.

Current roster

Updated August 22, 2016.[3]

# Nat Player Pos S/G Age Acquired Birthplace
46 Austria Johannes Bischofberger C L 24 2016 Dornbirn, Austria
89 Austria Marco Brucker C R 27 2016 Linz, Austria
69 Austria Philipp Cirtek F L 24 2011 Klagenfurt, Austria
70 Czech Republic Tomas Duba G L 37 2016 Praha, Czechoslovakia
52 Austria Christoph Duller D R 24 2016 Klagenfurt, Austria
3 United States David Fischer D R 30 2016 Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
17 Austria Manuel Ganahl RW L 28 2015 Bludenz, Austria
21 Austria Manuel Geier W R 30 2008 Judenburg, Austria
19 Austria Stefan Geier W L 30 2008 Judenburg, Austria
16 Austria Patrick Harand F L 34 2012 Wien, Austria
27 Austria Thomas Hundertpfund F L 28 2014 Klagenfurt, Austria
14 Canada Mark Hurtubise RW R 34 2016 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
51 United States Kevin Kapstad D L 32 2015 Boxborough, Massachusetts, United States
18 Austria Thomas Koch C L 35 2011 Klagenfurt, Austria
91 Austria Philipp Kreuzer RW R 23 2013 Villach, Austria
71 Austria Florian Kurath LW L 23 2013 Klagenfurt, Austria
74 Canada Jamie Lundmark C R 37 2012 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
31 Austria David Madlener G L 26 2016 Feldkirch, Austria
9 Canada Matt Neal C L 26 2016 Minesing, Ontario, Canada
13 Slovenia Žiga Pance RW L 29 2016 Ljubljana, Slovenia
4 Canada Mark Popovic D L 36 2015 Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada
55 Slovenia Mitja Robar D L 35 2016 Maribor, Slovenia
28 Austria Martin Schumnig D R 29 2006 Klagenfurt, Austria
24 Austria Steven Strong D L 25 2015 Villach, Austria
12 Austria Thomas Vallant D R 22 2011 Klagenfurt, Austria
Staff
Title STAFF MEMBER
Head Coach Petri Matikainen[4]
Asst. Coach Patric Wener
Goalie Coach Reinhard Divis
Development Coach Christoph Brandner
Development Coach Alexander Mellitzer
Dir. of Player Development Dieter Kalt

References

  1. ↑ St. Johann Metz, Hane Witek and Thomas Zeloth, ed. (2008). Nach Spielzeit. National Archives. p. 7.
  2. ↑ 75 Years of KAC, 1909-1984. EC KAC. 1984. p. 33.
  3. ↑ "EC KAC - Team -Roster". EC KAC. 2016-07-09. Retrieved 2016-07-09.
  4. ↑ "Petri Matikainen wird Head Coach | EC-KAC - Klagenfurt Eishockey". www.kac.at (in German). Retrieved 2018-05-04.
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