HYS The Hague

HYS The Hague is the highest level ice hockey team in The Hague, The Netherlands. The team plays in the Dutch Eredivisie, where it won the 2008-2009 National Championship. Home games are held at de Uithof, a winter sports recreational facility in the west of the city. Founded in 1933, the team celebrated its 75th anniversary during the 2008-2009 season, notably with commemorative hockey sweaters.

Name
"HYS" is pronounced "hice" and stands for "Haagsche Ijshockey Stichting" ("Ice Hockey Club of the Hague"; when using capital letters, "Y" sometimes replaces the Dutch letter "ij".

Previous variations of the name have included "H.H.IJ.C. Den Haag" (Hague Hockey and Icehockey Club) and "H.IJ.S. Hoky Den Haag". Since 2007-2008, its name has been the anglicized "HYS The Hague".

The team has occasionally had the nickname "Wolves". For the 2006-2007 season, the team was known as the "Calco Wolves".

History
The team was founded on April 16, 1933 as part of a three-team league (together with Tilburg and Amsterdam) called the Nederlandse IJshockey Bond. This league began play in 1934. In 1937-38 The Hague won the championship for the first time, repeating in 1938-39 and winning the Western Europe Cup. The team played all of its 1940 season in Tilburg and Amsterdam because of a lack of home arena.

Dutch hockey was interrupted during the German occupation from 1941-1944, but resumed in 1945 when an arena was rebuilt in The Hague. Nederlandse IJshockey Bond set up the Eeredivisie, the top Dutch ice hockey division, in 1946. HHIJC was once again competitive, winning the Eredivise championship in 1946 and 1948. In 1947, HHIJC merged with the Penguins, another Hague team.

The team was most dominant during the relaunch of the Eeredivie in the 1960s, repeating five times as champions from 1964 to 1969. The team then entered into a period of almost 40 years of decline, winning no championships and only intermittently playing in the Eredivisie from the 1980s to the early 2000s. In 1996, HHIJS merged with another Hague team, HOKY, to become the HHIJS HOKY Wolves.

In 2004, the team permanently re-entered the Eredivisie, finishing in last place (1-0-3-16 in 2005-06; 3-1-0-16 in 2006-2007). In 2007-08, it dropped the "Wolves" nickname and played as "HYS The Hague", a name reminiscent of successful teams of the past. That year, it had its first winning season in the Eredivisie since 1979, with a record of 14 wins, 2 overtime wins, 2 overtime losses and 6 regular season losses, good enough for third place. In 2008-09, the team improved to second place overall with a record of 14-3-2-5, and won its first National Championship in 40 years by defeating Tilburg in the playoff finals. (This would have qualified the team to participate in the 2009-2010 Champions Hockey League, but the tournament was cancelled for financial reasons.)

Season results
Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, OTW = Overtime Wins, OTL = Overtime Losses, L = Losses, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, Pts = Points

Rivals
The Eredivise currently has nine teams. Apart from HYS, there are the Tilburg Trappers, Heerenveen Flyers, Nijmegen Devils, Groningen Grizzlies, Eindhoven Kemphanen, Amstel Tijgers, Geleen Eaters and Utrecht Dragons.

In the 2008-2009 season, HYS came in second place in the regular season; Tilburg was first. HYS defeated Amstel Tijgers in the first round (in 2 straight games), beat the Geleen Eaters in 3 straight games out of 5 in the semi-finals, and won the National Championship in 5 games out of 5 against Tilburg.

Championships

 * Eredivisie National Championship

8 times: 1945-46; 1947-48; 1964-65; 1965-66; 1966-67; 1967-68; 1968-69; 2008-09.


 * Dutch National Champions (during years Eredivisie did not operate)

5 times: 1937-38; 1938-39; 1952-53; 1953-54; 1954-55


 * Western Europe Cup/International Cup

5 times: 1938; 1949; 1950; 1951; 1952; 1963


 * Barbanson Cup

once: 1949