Indestructible Andres Ambühl! Grison will become this Thursday, at 41, the sole record holder for the number of matches played in the elite of Swiss hockey. Whoever appears for the 1270th time on a National League scoresheet will be celebrated by the Davos ice rink before the match. Ironically, he will surpass this mark against Berne, where his predecessor Beat Gerber played (1,269 matches).
Since he is described by his peers as a discreet man and a leader by example, the best way to pay tribute to him is to talk about his accomplishments as a hockey player. Here are five dates that marked his career in the national league.
The adventure had to begin one day. Andres Ambühl scratched National League A ice for the first time on February 17, 2001 against Zug (5-3 victory). He was then 17 years old and had been aligned on the wing of the fourth line alongside Andreas Camenzind and Joel Fröhlicher. A few months later, on September 11, 2001, he scored his first goal in a defeat in Zurich.
Since then, he has scored 289 goals. However, he had to wait until January 31, 2009 and a duel in Lugano to light the lamp three times in the same game. “Büeli” repeated this feat against Kloten in 2013, against Lausanne in the play-off in 2017 and against Rapperswil in 2020.
If Andres Ambühl is an emblematic figure of HC Davos, we must not forget his little infidelity in Zurich. Upon his return from North America in 2010, he wore the ZSC Lions jersey for three seasons. He won the title of Swiss champion there in 2012 after one of the most epic outcomes in Swiss hockey.
The score is 1-1 in Act VI of the final between Berne and Zurich, there are only a handful of seconds left to play when the winger overflows with his characteristic speed. His pass causes a mix-up and the puck comes out on Steve McCarthy who catapults it into the goal. The timer displays 2 seconds. The Lions roar and the PostFinance Arena plunges into a nightmare.
In addition to the Zurich coronation, Andres Ambühl has won the championship five times, each time with Davos (2002, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2015). But he only had the honor of lifting the cup as captain in 2015. He also played a key role in the final.
While Davos has just taken the ice advantage against Zurich, the outcome of Act V in Graubünden is played out in overtime. Moment chosen by the pocket attacker to win a very important duel in the gang. What’s next? Samuel Walser capsizes the audience. Two days and a victory in Zurich later, Andres Ambühl held up the yellow vase at the Hallenstadion.
“Büeli” is part of the very closed circle of players who have played more than 1000 matches for the same team. He passed this historic milestone with the “Rekordmeister” on December 11, 2022, in the Davos cathedral, against Fribourg-Gottéron (3-2 AD). He had not scratched the statistics sheet on this occasion.
