Lada Tolyatti Lada Tolyatti ( Russian : ХК « Лада » Тольятти , " HK Lada Tolyatti " ; also commonly spelled Lada Togliatti ) is a professional ice hockey team based in Tolyatti , Russia . From the 2010 - 11 season , the team plays in the Vysshaya Liga . History . Promising beginnings . Lada was founded on July 1976 as Torpedo Togliatti . Roughly a month later , Torpedo played its first game , a friendly against Dizel Penza . The game resulted in a 3 - 3 tie - a promising result for the club . Torpedo began in the Vtoraya Liga ( then known as the Klass A Group 2 ) in 1976 - 77 . In this league , then the equivalent of the third and last level of the Soviet hockey scheme , the team achieved a secure mid - table finish in the " Zapadnaya Zona " ( Western Zone ) , finishing seventh out of fourteen teams with 25 wins in 52 games . Torpedo quickly improved . Already next season , the team finished third of the Western Zone , just two points shy of Kristall Elektrostal and the promotion zone . In 1979 , Torpedo finally crowned its rapid ascension to the top by finishing first of the Western Zone , therefore earning a promotion to the Klass A Group 1 . After shaky beginnings that saw the team fall back in the Group B , Torpedo came back in 1982 and enjoyed nearly a decade of Pervaya Liga activities before the fate brought Tolyatti to a higher standard . The last steps to the top . The team ' s face was transformed at the end of the 1980s . In 1988 - 89 , Torpedo Togliatti was renamed Lada Togliatti . The name reflects the new team ' s sponsorship , with the car manufacturer Lada , which is based in Tolyatti . Lada finished second of the Pervaya Liga that season , a sign of things to come . In 1990 , Lada hired Gennady Tsygurov , a former Traktor Chelyabinsk defenceman who turned to coaching following his playing days . In 1991 , Lada earned its promotion to the Vysshaya Liga which was then the top level of Soviet hockey . Lada ' s road to glory was then well under way . In 1992 - 93 , Lada finishes first of the Eastern Conference and reaches the league ' s playoffs finals . The team was swept by Dynamo Moscow in three games , but Lada had nevertheless shown it was becoming an important club in Russia and that the domination of Moscow hockey was slowly but surely weakening . It also and especially earned its first ever Russian Championship award in the process . The golden years . The team didn ' t stop its progression there , however . In 1993 - 94 , Lada finished first overall of the league with 73 points , 5 better than second place Dynamo . Lada wasn ' t exactly a powerhouse in front of the opposition ' s goal , with 169 goals scored ; six teams had done better . However , their defensive brigade was solid , allowing only 82 goals in the whole season , and allowing the team to finish the season with a + 107 goal differential . Lada sailed through the playoffs first two rounds , slaughtering Metallurg Cherepovets in the first round and easily winning over Spartak Moscow . Lada defeated SKA Saint Petersburg in the semi - finals and reached the finals for a second straight year , this time again meeting Dynamo . By winning three games against two , Lada turned a page of the history book of Soviet / Russian hockey by becoming the first team outside of Moscow to clinch the league championship . This allowed head coach Tsygurov to get some revenge over the Moscow clubs , who have stripped him from some championship titles back in the days he coached Traktor . Traktor trained back then some of the finest young players of the country , but was continuously being stolen his best players by the Moscow clubs ( especially CSKA , then eventually Dynamo ) , as politics allowed the Army club ( CSKA ) to draft the best players leaguewide . Two of Lada ' s players , Vladimir Tarasov and Vyacheslav Bezukladnikov , have been chosen to play for the Russian National Team at the 1994 Olympics . The Russians actually fared pretty badly in Lillehammer , and Igor Dmitriev was later quoted saying he should have picked more of the Lada players for the national squad . The recent successes of Lada opened to them the doors to international club competitions . Lada was allowed to participate in the 1994 European Cup . The team managed to reach the Cup Finals , losing to the Finnish TPS Turku . Lada continued being a powerhouse in 1994 - 95 . Tolyatti finished first in the Russian Superleague with an outrageous domination : out of 52 regular season games , Lada won 41 and tied 4 , only losing seven games . The club totally outmatched the opposition with 229 goals for , by opposition to a meager 83 goals against , good for a + 146 differential . For a third straight year , Lada reached the playoffs finals ; for a third straight time , it was Dynamo Moscow that they had to face . Unlike the previous season , Lada lost , 3 games to two , to the Moscow side . The mighty Lada enjoyed another fine season in 1995 - 96 . After humble beginnings in the league ' s first round , finishing fourth in the Eastern Conference , Lada woke up in the final pool , finishing first with 21 wins in 26 games . Lada eliminated Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod and Severstal Cherepovets in the playoffs before being ousted in three games by Metallurg Magnitogorsk , the new rising power of the league . Lada also did well at the 1995 Spengler Cup , with a second place finish , after the Canadian National Team . The 1996 - 97 season saw Tolyatti win his first international championship , as the team won its first European Cup title as they defeated MODO Hockey 4 - 3 in overtime in Düsseldorf , Germany . It was the first time a Russian side won the competition since CSKA Moscow ' s hegemony in the 1970s and 1980s . League - wise , Lada was equally succesful . It was crowned Russian regular season champion again , with a 30 wins and 63 points effort , imbellished by another lopsided goal differential ( + 83 ) . The team reached the league finals once again , this time facing Torpedo Yaroslavl , third overall in the regular season . Despite good play by Tolyatti , Yaroslavl swept Lada in three games in the league finals . Drought years . Tolyatti offered another strong showing in 1997 - 98 RSL season , finishing fourth overall in the league . Andrey Tarasenko finished as the league ' s top scorer with 19 goals and 41 assists . Lada met rivals Dynamo Moscow again in the playoffs , this time in the quarterfinals . Dynamo won in three games and eliminated the Samara Oblast squad . The next season , Lada finished sixth overall in the league , and history repeated itself in the playoffs , as Dynamo advanced to the next round in the quarterfinals by triumphing over Lada . In 1999 - 00 , Lada dropped three more ranks in the final league standings . Long time head coach Gennady Tsygurov paid for the club ' s poor season beginning by being replaced around November 1999 by Valery Postnikov . And to make matters worse , Lada once again lost in the quarterfinals . . . to Dynamo . The turn of the millenium saw Lada continue to be one of the strongest teams of the league . In 2000 - 01 , Lada improved it ' s standings with a fifth place finish . The playoffs had a bitter taste for the team however , as the team is eliminated in the quarterfinals by Avangard Omsk , who was coached by none other than Gennady Tsygurov , whom Lada had fired the previous season . The quarterfinals had been an unbreakable barrier for Lada in the recent few years , and that trend didn ' t cease the following year , with Metallurg Magnitogorsk eliminating Lada in the quarterfinals in 2001 - 02 , despite the arrival of a new head coach , Piotr Vorobiev . Vorobiev led Tolyatti to the semi - finals in 2002 - 03 , where Lokomotiv Yaroslavl promptly disposed of them . Lada however earned the league ' s bronze medal , after winning twice by the score of 4 - 1 over Avangard Omsk . Lada improved their standings again in 2003 - 04 with a second place overall . Avangard had their revenge in the playoffs by eliminating Lada in the semi - finals . Lada finished third in the playoffs with a second consecutive bronze medal win . Lada achieved another second place overall finish during the 2004 - 05 RSL season . Viktor Kozlov , who joined Tolyatti in favor of the 2004 - 05 NHL lock - out , finished first in the league for the compilation of the most games three - stars nomination ; his teammate , the young sensation Alexander Semin , finished 9th in that same ranking . Lada enjoyed a fine playoffs run , reaching the league ' s finals for the first time since 1997 . Once again , it was Dynamo Moscow that stood in their way there , and Lada lost in three bitterly fought games , the last requiring shootouts to decide a winner . Aleksandr Buturlin finished fourth best playoffs scorer with nine points in ten games . Financial hardships . The 2005 - 06 RSL season turned out to be difficult for Lada ' s wallet . Financial difficulties plagued the team , and in November 2005 , 16 players decided to leave the team , including major contributors such as Sergei Sevastyanov , Oleg Belkin , Alexander Boikov and Alexander Semin . With so many players gone , the team was forced to bring in players from the reserve team . But despite all those troubles , Tolyatti still managed to achieve a safe mid - table finish ( 9th place ) . The team qualified for the playoffs and even managed to reach the quarterfinals , where they loss at the hands of Metallurg Magnitogorsk . Even more impressive , Lada also managed to with the 2006 IIHF Continental Cup , having had the better on its final pool - mates , Alba Volan , HK Riga 2000 and ZSC Lions . In May 2006 , Anatoly Emelin signed as a new Lada head coach , replacing Vorobiev . But the financial troubles , despite Lada ' s win in the Continental Cup , had changed the team ' s face . 2006 - 07 was another average season , with a 11th place finish and a quick first round playoffs exit handed by CSKA Moscow . 2007 - 08 was no better , complete with another early exit in the first round , this time to Yaroslavl . Kontinental Hockey League . Lada was one of the 24 charter teams of the newly created Kontinental Hockey League in 2008 - 09 . The season saw Piotr Vorobiev come back behind Lada ' s bench after several seasons of absence . His return was a blessing for the team , as Auto - VAZ , the team ' s sponsor , announced a drastic 50 % cut of its funding of local sports clubs ( including of course Lada Tolyatti ) due to the Financial Crisis that hit hard the car industry . Even though the paychecks came three months late , Vorobiev successfully held the team together and qualified it for the playoffs with a 13th place . If the offense was nowhere near that the club had at its disposition in its glory days in the 1990s , the defence , however , was much improved and its goal against total was among the league ' s lowest . Goaltender Vitali Koshechkin enjoyed a fine season in his hometown and finished third overall in the league for the save percentage . He was instrumental in Lada ' s playoffs qualification and was a key instrument in making the eighth - of - finals series with CSKA Moscow a tight one . The new Lada Arena saga continued . Despite its bright past , Lada was still stuck in the small Volgar Sports Palace , which , at 2 , 900 places , was clearly too small for KHL standards . Following investigations by the league , the Samara Oblast government promised the arena would be finished in 2010 . Financial hardships carried on into the 2009 - 10 KHL season , which was a disaster for Lada . For the first time in a very long time , the club failed to reach the playoffs , finishing 22nd overall in the league . It was announced that the current state of finances for the team was unacceptable , and that the team would be removed from the KHL starting in 2010 - 11 for an undetermined period of time , until the team ' s finances improved . That means a relegation to the Vysshaya Liga , very much like what had happened to Khimik Voskresensk the previous season . An Ukrainian team , HC Budivelnyk , is seriously regarded as Lada ' s replacement in the league . Meanwhile , the league decided to give free agent status to 15 Lada players , a situation decried by some people , including Piotr Vorobiev , who had left the team in February . All - time standings . " This section is partly incomplete . If you have information we still miss , please edit this section . "