The Esbjerg Energy is a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

team based in

Esbjerg Esbjerg (, ) is a seaport town and seat of Esbjerg Municipality on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. By road, it is west of Kolding and southwest of Aarhus. With an urban population of 71,698 (1 January 2022)

, Denmark, playing in the

Metal Ligaen Metal Ligaen is the premier league in Danish ice hockey. The league consists of 9 professional teams. The name of the league has changed many times, but is being sponsored by Dansk Metal and therefore got the name Metalligaen. History It is a ...

, the top tier of Danish ice hockey. The club was founded in 2005 and play their home games in the

Granly Hockey Arena Granly Hockey Arena (also known as ''Esbjerg Skøjtehal'') is an ice hockey arena located in Esbjerg, Denmark. The arena opened in 1974 and has a capacity of 4,200 people. Its primary tenant is Esbjerg IK. The arena has been home to the ice hockey ...

which has a capacity of 4,200 spectators. Until 2004 the team played under the name of E.I.K. (Esbjerg Ishockey Klub), but due to financial instability at the club, the professional

license A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

was transferred to

Esbjerg fB Esbjerg forenede Boldklubber (; commonly known as Esbjerg fB or EfB in short) is a Danish professional football club based in Esbjerg, West Jutland, that plays in the 2nd division, the third-tier of the Danish football league system. Foun ...

. In early 2013 after spending eight seasons under the umbrella Esbjerg fB; the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club sold EfB Ishockey to businessman Christian Rølmer Christensen.

Club history

2013–present: Mark Pederson era

''Season: 2013–2014'' In the club's first season under new ownership, the club appointed Mark Pederson as the new head coach. The

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

, a former

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

player and successful head coach in numerous ice hockey leagues, took over as the club's new coach. Out of the club's eight foreigners of the previous

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

, only one returned to the club, with the rest leaving to join new clubs. Among the foreigners who left to join new clubs, 3 out of the 8 were top 5 on the team, in points the previous season. In Pederson's first season as the club's head coach, he led the team to the playoffs, though it was spoiled by a match fixing scandal. Three of the club's players including,

Kirill Starkov Kirill Olegovich Starkov (russian: Кирилл Олегович Старков; born 31 March 1987) is a Russian-born Danish professional ice hockey forward who is currently coaching Dudingen Bulls in the Swiss MyHL league, the third tier of the ...

Tyler Mosienko Tyler Mosienko (born March 21, 1984) is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is currently an unrestricted free agent. He most recently played for the Iowa Heartlanders in the ECHL. He is the grandson of Hockey Hall of Famer Bill Mosienko. ...

and Dennis Jensen were suspended and fined after admitting to betting on their own team and match-fixing. After losing two key first liners due to suspension; Esbjerg was eliminated in the quarterfinal by local rivals

SønderjyskE Ishockey SønderjyskE (Ice hockey) is a professional ice hockey team playing in the top Danish ice hockey league Metal Ligaen. The team is part of SønderjyskE which is a sports umbrella with Association football, football, Team handball, handball and ice ...

. ''Season: 2014–2015'' In his second season as head coach, Pedersen added key players Andrew Clark,

Mark Derlago Mark Derlago (born January 17, 1986) is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey left winger. Before joining Halla, Derlago played for the Texas Stars, Manitoba Moose, and the Providence Bruins of the AHL, and was a member of the Idaho Steelh ...

and

Scott Howe Scott may refer to: Places Canada * Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec * Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380 * Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Saskat ...

to the club, who together combined for 189 points over 101 games (76 goals and 113 assists). Pedersen managed to lead the club to the finals as they swept

Odense Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (behind Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2022, the city proper had a population of 180,863 while Odense Municipality had a population of 20 ...

, in the quarterfinals, and defeated

Herning Herning () is a Danish town in the Central Denmark Region of the Jutland peninsula. It is the main town and the administrative seat of Herning Municipality. Herning has a population of 50,565 (1 January 2022) ''Season: 2015–2016'' For the 2015–16 season, Pedersen managed to keep several dominant core players. At the conclusion of the regular season, Esbjerg finished at a strong third place and were put up against seventh place

Rødovre Rødovre is a town in eastern Denmark, seat of the Rødovre Municipality, in the Region Hovedstaden. The town's population 1 January 2019 was 39,907, and in addition 145 persons had no fixed address, which made up a total of 40,052 in the municip ...

in the quarterfinals. Esbjerg defeated Rødovre in six games, three of which ended in

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society), ...

and advance to the semifinals. In the semifinals, Esbjerg faced local rivals SønderjyskE, the three-time defending champions who had eliminated Esbjerg, in the previous two seasons. Esbjerg managed to win the series in seven games, the first time they had defeated SønderjyskE in a seven game-series since 2006. Esbjerg than went on to defeat Herning, 4–2 in a high scoring final, to win their first title since 2004. ''Season: 2016–2017'' For the time in Esbjerg icehockey history, The Esbjerg Energy represented Denmark in the Annual Champions League tournament. Esbjerg was placed in Group G with Helsinki and EV Zug, Esbjerg did not advance to the next round, finishing the tournament with a 1–1–2 record. After their early start to the season with international hockey, Esbjerg Energy struggled in their home league. The first half of the season was spent in the bottom of the league. Second half of the season Esbjerg catapulted to the top of the league winning many games in a row. Esbjerg finished 4th and picked rivals SønderjyskE as their opponents for the quarterfinals. In the Semifinals Esbjerg Energy eliminated Frederikshavn Whitehawks in game seven and advanced to their third final in as many years. In the finals Esbjerg won the championship at home in game 5, making them back-to-back champions for the first time in club history.

Season by season record

AaP-EE, Aalborg Gigantium 20191101 (ubt)-005

Current roster

Updated February 20, 2019

Retired Numbers

*14 Oleg Starkov, F, 1991–2000 *15 Soren Jensen, D, 1984–2006 *16 Andreas Andreasen, D, 1994–2012

Team captains

* Olivier Coqueux, 2008–2009 * Andreas Andreasen, 2009–2010 *

, 2010–2011 * Sune Hjulmand, 2011–2015 * Aaron Lee, 2015–2016 * Brock Nixon, 2016–

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Efb Ishockey Ice hockey teams in Denmark Ice hockey clubs established in 2005 2005 establishments in Denmark