Almost all players apart from the ones playing in North America were present at the gala evening. Their bronze-medal performance at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi was worth gold, literally, as each player got a golden gift.

Florence Schelling, who was named Most Valuable Player and Best Goalkeeper of the Olympic women’s ice hockey tournament in Sochi 2014, won Switzerland’s Hockey Woman of the Year award.

It was a well-deserved honour for the Swiss women’s national team that has not always got the highest recognition in the country but since the Olympic medal win in February – the first by a Swiss ice hockey team in 66 years – every Swiss sport fan knows that women play hockey in the country and that they do it well.

National team forward Roman Wick of the ZSC Lions Zurich was named Most Valuable Player of the Swiss National League A, French national team goalie Cristobal Huet of Lausanne HC won the Jacques Plante Trophy for the best goalkeeper of the league and Latvian U20 national team goalie Elvis Merzlikins of HC Lugano was named Youngster of the Year.

Long-time national team player Ivo Ruthemann, who retired this year after 20 years in professional hockey with SC Bern and HC Davos, earned the Special Award for his contributions to Swiss hockey. He represented the country in 12 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships and three Olympic Winter Games. Only Mathias Seger has played more international games for Switzerland than Ruthemann.