Difficult playoff start for NLA favourites

Playoff Quarterfinals First round:

EV Zug - EHC Biel 3:1

Regulear season winners EV Zug did get the expected first win against Biel but it was far more work than they could have wanted. Zug had to wait until the 19th minute when NLA topscorer Damien Brunner brought them in front. In the 37th Thomas Ruefenacht extended the lead with a short hander but in the same minute Tom Preissing showed the will of the team that only made the playoffs on the last matchday of the regular season to be more than just an easy victim. With 43 seconds to go in the middle period Fabian Schnyder decided the game in favour of the EVZ but Biel tried a lot until the end although they shouldn't score another time.

HC Davos - ZSC Lions 2:4

The first real playoff suprise came when the ZSC Lions defeated Davos in their own stadium. In the regular season Davos had 21 points more than Zürich but that's definately not a guarantee to have an easy job in a direct playoff matchup. Domenico Pittis opend the score for the ZSC Lions in the 10th minute but only 13 seconds past until Davos shooting star Lukas Sieber managed to tie the game. Early in the second Rene Back even turned the result around completely. After the equalizer of Zürich player Reto Schäppi at the beginning of the third everything looked like the teams should continue in the overtime but with not even one and a half minutes left to play in the regular time Juraj Kolnik did get the lead back to the guests and with nine seconds left on the clock Patrik Bärtschi made the final result of 2-4 perfect.

Fribourg-Gottéron - HC Lugano 2:3

Fribourg went into the game as favourites but had to take a cold shower when Sebastien Reuille and Brady Murray scored in the first six minutes to give the guests from Lugano a comfortable lead. Around "half time" it was Julien Sprunger who cut the lead but Kevin Romy used a chance to extend it again with four minutes left in the second. When Andrei Bykov scored three minutes prior to the end of the regular time, hope came back to the hosts but the race to catch up was started too late to change the result anymore.

Kloten Flyers - SC Bern 2:3

The two neighbours of the regular season table ended their first game with a close result as expected. Tommi Santala already scored in the 9th mintute for the hosts but just two and a half minutes later Thomas Derune tied the match for Bern. Early in thes econd it was Victor Stancescu to give Kloten another lead which this time seemed to break the neck of the guests, but Jean-Pierre Dumont and again Thomas Derune earned the first win in the series for the SCB in the third period.

Playouts First Round:

Genève-Servette HC - Rapperswil-Jona Lakers 2:3

The hosts missed the playoffs in the very last match of the regular season while the Rapperswil-Jona lakers new already from the beginning of the season that they would have to prepare for the playouts. It seems that the guests had better adjusted to the pressure of the possibility to go down. Although Daniel Rubin made it 1-0 for Genève after only seven minutes, Reto Suri found a fast answer to get the equalizer in the 11th. In the last minute of the middle period Samuel Friedli did get the lead back to Servette, but the team that lost despite a three-goal lead in their last home game, also missed today the chance to decide the match on time. Instead Brandon Reid and Loic Burkhalter - the later one even in the last minute of play - earned a very surprising away win for the Lakers who finished the regular season with 27 (!) points less than Servette.  

SCL Tigers - HC Ambrì-Piotta 4:3 OT

The outcome of this series was more than uncertain before its start as both teams had only a three-point distance to each other in the regular season. As expected the game was close and even overtime had to decided the winner. For the hosts the lead in the series was hard work as Ambri answered three times the lead by Pelletier, Moser and Nüssli through goals by Perrault, Meier and Pestoni. The game winner was scored by Joel Genazzi for Langnau in the 76th minute to award his team for their hard work.

 

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