Tornado Luxembourg will start their season in the French 3rd division against Elan Champigny this Saturday 29 September 2018 at Kockelscheuer.

Having travelled to the West last season, Tornado is now moving back to the North East group in the French 3rd division. In group C, Tornado will play Dijon, Epinal, Dammarie, Champigny, Reims, Fontenay and ACBB. 

Epinal and Champigny have proven themselves as strong teams, as highlighted by their finishing 2nd and 3rd in the group (behind Colmar) last season. Moreover, during the pre-season, Epinal beat Strasbourg’s division two team.

Meanwhile, Dijon’s first team has quit so there might be a stronger team than previous seasons. Reims is boosting hockey in their city and according to the preparation game against Dammarie, it seems that it is paying off, as Reims won the game 11-3. ACBB and Fontenay were the last two teams in the group C last season. 

The first round was played last weekend when Epinal won in Dijon 9-2, Reims in Champigny 4-2 and Dammarie beat Fontaney with 20-6.

For this season the teams were asking for more games from the French federation. This was arranged by changing the play-offs system. After playing a double round or 14 games during the regular season, the 6 best teams will go to the first play-off round. The 1st and 2nd team from the group will play against each other and decide who is the winner of the group and gain the home advance for coming rounds. The 3rd team will then play against the 6th and the 4th against the 5th, with the winner of each continuing to the second round.

Tornado’s roster underwent some changes during the summer, namely losing 7 players. Sebastian Grein moved back to Sweden, Mikael Äijälä, Steven Minden, Lukas Föhr, Jimmy Hilbert and Mickey Cannon moved to other cities due to work and studies and Kevin Grönlund decided to continue his career in Beaufort. However, the team will has also welcomed some newcomers, including forwards Quentin William from France, Henri Öörni and Jusse Lampisjärvi from Finland together with Canadian defender Brandon Evanoff who joined the team during September. Patrik Hedberg, also from Finland, is still on try out and his situation will be decided in a week.

Support for the Luxembourg team is welcomed.