NLA Semi-finals game 1

Fribourg 3 Zürich 2 (1-0 in series)

Excellent in the first period, Fribourg won the first game of the semifinals (3-2) against Zurich. This was the twelfth victory in a row to Fribourg coach Hans Kossmann against Zürich. 

In the first period Fribourg dominated in every sense of the game, 17-4  in shots says it all. However the defending champions has a lot of the resources and in the second and third period we saw a different Zürich. The visiting team done what they were suppose to do: intensity and fast skating. But it was to late, Fribourg has the experience required to win the series against the defending champions. Once again Fribourg top-scorer, and son of legend Slava Bykov, Andrey Bykov led Fribourg.

Bern 4 Zug 3 OT (1-0 in series)

Bern has started well it's series of the semi-final by winning in overtime against Zug. Bern experienced a difficult start of the game. On the first attack, Zug opened the score after 44 seconds in the game by... Byron Ritchie, the top scorer put the puck in his own goal. 

After that Bern dominated the but was never able to crush the opponent. Both neutral zones were bad tonight and was without surprise that 3-3 was the result after 40 minutes. 

Both teams were unable to decide in the last period which was marked by one  Alain Berger check in Schefer head. Perhaps  a new case for the single judge decide tomorrow morning. Martin Pluss was the hero of the night by scoring two goals including the game winning goal in overtime. 

Fight for NLA 

Lakers 5 Langnau 6 SO (0-1 in series) 

Langnau after penalty shootout victory makes the first break of the series. In a very bad game with very bad neutral zone system in both sides, the attendance assisted a game with a lot of goals. Is not a surprise to see these two teams in competition at this point of the season. 

In overtime Rapperswil was closer to the victory but the goal never came. Having Kolnik and Robbie Earl that can score points for you is not enough if your defense doesn't help. 

Olten 3 Lausanne 4 SO (0-1 in series)

The first game of the NLB finals was not a boring one. An awkward one? Yes. Both teams have to tank the goalies for delivering a solid game. Bays and Tobler allowed his teams to stay in the game.  

Lausanne committed to many penalty's but Olten was not only bad in those situations, but they also allowed Lausanne to score twice in shorthanded situations. Maybe the difference was there. The line Berthon-Augsburger-Antonietti was awesome tonight by scoring two shorthanded goals and scoring the decisive penalty shot.

Tweets by @eurohockey