In English, bílí tygři means "white tigers", and ever since the club adopted this name, they have fought like tigers to first reach the Extraliga and finally, in 2016, win the Czech championship. 

by Radoslav Vavřina

The club located in the north of the Czech Republic is a founding member of the Champions Hockey League and one of the former participants in the European Trophy. The 2015-16 season was a dream for Bili Tygri Liberec – competing well in the European competition to reach the Round of 16 and domstically finished 1st in the regular season before winning the playoffs and the national title. 

History

The history of hockey in this mountain city traces back to the pre-World War II era and after the war, Lokomotiva Liberec, the team created in a merger in 1956, slowly made its way to the second-highest league in the country.

But a place in the Czech Extraliga didn't come for almost half a decade of the club's existence, during which time the name changed for the first time to Stadion Liberec. Financial problems kept Stadion in lower leagues for a long time until the club was resurrected in 1994 and brought back to life, becoming a perennial contender in the second-highest Czech league.

The team finally made the jump to the Extraliga in 2002 when Liberec knocked Kladno, the hometown of many great Czech hockey players, out of the top league via a relegation series. Liberec have maintained their spot in the Extraliga ever since.

What's in a name?

In 2000 the team was re-named again, Bili Tygri or “White Tigers” in English. The white tiger was chosen to be the face of the hockey club in Liberec because they are what have made the city famous. The Liberec Zoo has bred them for years, as with many other rare animals.

While hockey and other winter sports have been around in Liberec for a long time, the Extraliga doesn't have such a long tradition and even hardcore fans of the team must admit that the fanbases of teams in Prague, Pardubice, Brno and Plzen are much larger.

Despite that, fans that are from or arrive in Liberec to see a hockey game have a very unique experience in the gray and blue Tipsport Arena. Built in 2005, it has a capacity of 7,250 for hockey and has been evaluated as one of the best in the country. It is surrounded by what's called Sportpark Liberec, a state-of-the-art facility that houses venues for a wide variety of sports, from hockey to football to tennis or baseball, all just seconds apart from one another. During the 2012 lockout, NHLers Ondrej Pavelec and Wayne Simmonds said that the facility is on par with many of those in the NHL.

Extraliga achievements

On-ice success, however, doesn't come directly from a good arena. And so, in the Extraliga, it took a while before the city had itself a winner. Prior to the magical 2015-16 season the White Tigers finished 1st in the regular season twice in 2006 and 2007 but playoff sucess eluded them – making it only as far as the semi-finals five times in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012.

Much of the success in the mid- and late-2000s decade came with the help of former NHLer and Czech national team goalie Milan Hnilicka, who gave the club five solid seasons between the pipes. But Hnilicka is not the biggest name that is connected to the history of hockey in Liberec. The club's most prominent star was Petr Nedved, who was born in Liberec and, following his long career in the National Hockey League, spent six seasons in his hometown team up until his retirement that was officially announced in April 2014.

These notable players aren't the only links that that connect the city to the rest of the hockey world. Besides being a part of the original European Trophy and then the CHL, the team also played in the NHL Premiere Challenge back in October 2010 when the Boston Bruins came to town just days before opening their regular season in Prague. The Original Six NHL team would win what was probably been the biggest hockey game of the history of Liberec up till that time, but the Tigers didn't go down without a fight.

A title is won

The two seasons prior to 2015-16 had been poor, including an 11th-place finish the year before where they had to fight just to avoid the Relegation Round. But things turned around starting with a fine showing in the CHL, where the team's most notable achievement was knocking off powerful Swedish squad Linkoping HC in the Round of 32, then gave the internationally famous HC Davos, eventual Semi-Finalists, a good battle in the next round. 

The team won the Czech regular season easily, losing only eight games in regulation time, then sweeping the quarter-finals and semi-finals to reach the Extraliga finals for the first time ever. In the finals, they beat Sparta Prague in six games, winning the last game on a goal by Martin Bakos in double overtime in front of more than 17,000 fans at Prague's O2 Arena. 

The team won with a mix of youngsters and veterans. 37-year-old goalie Jan Lasak, 34-year-old defencemen Martin Sevc, Tomas Mojzis and Jan Vytisk and forwards Branko Radivojevic and Petr Vampola, 35 and 34 respectively, were complimented by defencemen Radim Simek and Michal Plutnar (23 and 21 respectively) and 19-year-old forward Dominik Lakatos, the league's Rookie of the Year.

Looking toward the future

A lot of these young players are products of the club's junior hockey academy, which has produced many current Extraliga players and has lately had success not only on the national level, but also on Czech junior national teams with many players from that academy playing in IIHF events. Other recent products of the academy include forward Pavel Zacha and goaltender Vitek Vanecek, who have both been drafted by NHL clubs. 

Also, the aforementioned fanbase is international with many fans coming in from Germany to attend games as the border is just half an hour away. These fans had plenty to cheer about in 2015-16, and hope to cheer more as Bili Tygri set out to defend their national title and compete against Europe's best in the CHL.

Team facts

CHL seasons

2015-16: 2nd in Group D, Round of 16
2014-15: 2nd in Group A

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NOTE: This article has been updated since its original pubication.