Lions with tough shootout loss at home

The Lions who had won their first home game on Thursday but fell to Davos just two days later made the fans part of a great choreo again, giving out ballons in the teams colours blue, red and white and made them light up with their smartphones.

Slight changes on Team HC Davos were made by Arno del Curto by replacing team leader Reto von Arx through his brother Jan in the defense. On the Lions squad, Bergeron returned back to the line-up, replacing Derek Smith.

Three minutes into the game the Lions had the first chance of the game but Leonardo Genoni had no trouble with the shot from the left face-off circle. In the following minutes both teams were able to put their powerplay skills on the test but neither team was successful, 0-0 was the stand after the first period.

Period two and the intensity was on a high level on both sides, again each team had chances to play with the one-man advantage. With 5 minutes left in the second period, Andres Ambühl who had played for the Lions in the previous years single-handedly scored the first goal for his team by curving from his own zone around the Lions defense and beating Lukas Flüeler a first time. "I was happy it worked out the way I wanted, it's always nice when you can score on those kind of chances" Ambühl said. But Davos wasn't done yet, with less than 4 minutes left Enzo Corvi scored with a one-timer, almost flying through the air himself, the pass was given from Mauro Jörg who stood on the right face-off circle. The period ended just seconds later, a break that came just at the right time for the Lions.

5 Minutes were played in the 3rd period, Davos wasn't able to deliver the puck out of their own zone but Lions forwards Nilsson and Keller fought hard to keep the puck and push towards Genoni. He wasn't able to block Shannon's first shot as it rebounded and gave Shannon a second chance and he got the first goal top shelve for the Lions. Now the Lions had awoken and Del Curto had a feeling, instantly taking the timeout but Zurich was now on fire when Patrick Geering deflected Denis Malgins shot in the 48th minute to equalize the score to 2-2. In the minutes of the period Zurich seemed to have a slight advantage but the score remained 2-2 and so an overtime period or an eventual shootout would have to decide the winner of game three.

The overtime was  a demonstration of both teams offense. The game going back and forward but the game-winning goal just wasn't scored in the 20 minutes. And so the shoot-out would decide the winner. For Davos, Samuel Walser and Felicien Du Bois were successful while no Lions player was able to defeat Leonardo Genoni in the 5 round shoot-out.

"The fact is that you have to score on the powerplay chances" Coach Marc Crawford said. His team had numerous chances to score on the one-man advantage but didn't succeed.

Davos now take the 2-1 series lead and will play Thursdays game on home ice.


ZSC Lions: Flüeler, Leimbacher; Tallinder, Geering;  Wick, Cunti, Bärtschi; Bergeron, Stoffel; Nilsson, Shannon (A), Keller; Siegenthaler, Blindenbacher (A); Schäppi, Trachsler, Künzle; Malgin, Seger (C); Bastl, Neuenschwander, Baltisberger / Injured/Reserve: Schlegel, Schnyder, Boltshauser, Smith, Fritsche, Tabacek

HC Davos: Genoni, Senn; Du Bois (A), Kindschi; Paulsson, Redenbach, Ambühl (C); Forster, Heldner; Axelsson, Lindgren, Hofmann; Guerra, Von Arx Jan, Wieser Dino, Walser, Sciaroni; Paschoud, Schneeberger; Jörg, Corvi, Simion / Injured/Reserve: Reto von Arx, Koistinen, Marc Wieser, Camperchioli

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