NLA: Kloten vs Davos season opener
13 Sep 2013 | Andreas Reiner
Major changes in the Kloten Flyers coaching staff lead to first positive surprise.
After a summer with many turbulances including the hiring of Kloten
Legend Felix Hollenstein as head coach, fan favourite Kimmo Rintanen as
Assistant Coach the Flyers were hoping to leave last season behind them.
It saw the Flyers go to the Play-Outs, almost facing relegation to the
National League B.
The disastrous Management of the past seasons has been replaced with
fresh blood, eager not to repeat the same mistakes. Time will tell if,
and how Kloten will face the new challenges but the newly won optimism
has infected everyone involved in and around Kloten. The result, an
NHL-style laser show opening, presenting the succesful past of the club
but also showing the young guns recording the new club anthem in a 7
minute video.
Before the game, players from both teams were honoured for winning the silver medal at the 2013 World Championship in Sweden.
Both teams had a nervous start, trying to gain puck possession but
weren't able to dominate on either side. It was finnish forward Tommi
Santala who scored the first goal of the season assisted by the new boy
in town, Peter Mueller. Seven minutes later it was 3rd liner Lukas Stoop
with a beautiful slapshot scoring on Leonardo Genoni.
The second period saw Marcus Paulsson bring Davos on the scoreboard.
Shortly after, Davos had a two man advantage but NHL approved goalie
Martin Gerber was the expected insurance that the Flyers had acquired
him for. He stopped all shots that were fired between his pipes during
that powerplay.
The 3rd period opened with a lot of back and forth of both Teams,
Kloten trying to decide the game while Davos was pushing for the game
tying goal when Simon Bodenmann scored the 3rd goal assisted by Michael
Liniger and Victor Stancescu. 4 Minutes before the end of the game,
Matthias Bieber scored from behind the goal, making it 4:1. And the 7151
Fans at Kolping Arena were in for a treat as Tommi Santala scored his
second goal of the evening, assisted by Matthias Bieber and Micki
Dupont. The Kloten Flyers sent the Marmots back home with something to
think of. Kloten was better offensively and better organised in their
defense. The first line scored 3 goals and had 5 Assists.
It's going to be interesting to see if the Flyers can keep up the
pace of this first game, it's going to be a long, long Season but a good
start.
Best Player:
Kloten: Martin Gerber
Davos: Marcus Paulsson