Davos takes a dive against Flyers

The guest from Davos received a rather unusual, unfriendly greeting from the home team fans in the standing ranks. Maybe it was clear to everyone attending the game that Kloten had to finally get out of their slump if they wanted to finish the regular season on a play off spot.

10 minutes were played but neither team had created scoring chances yet the pace was high. Norwegian center Mathis Olimb had a first chance in the 12th minute from the left face-off circle, the puck bounced off Genoni's glove but he was able to block it before any other forward was able to take a chance on a rebound. But it was Davos who scored the first goal, in the 15th minute Enzo Corvi was unguarded and had no problems to get the puck past Gerber with a slapshot above his shoulders. The home team continued playing the way they did and with 3 minutes left Tomi Santala fed Vincent Praplan with a nice pass from the blue line and put his team on the jumbotron a first time. With a minute left the same line was on the ice again, this time Praplan received a pass from Hollenstein who saw his team mate pushing towards the goal, the youngster had no problem lifting the puck above Genoni with a nice lob.

The power hockey that both teams had played from the start transcended to the second period when Matthias Bieber scored his 12th goal of the season, assisted by Praplan in the 4th minute. The Flyers kept on firing from all cylinders and forced Arno del Curto to take an early time-out. Whatever he had told his team, he didn't get through because just a minute after the time-out Bieber scored his second goal of the evening in the 27th minute. And if that wasn't enough, Samuel Guerra was benched for hooking seconds later but the home team's power play wasn't as convincing as their play at even strength. The guest team on the other hand slowly realised that they were being steam rolled by a fast-paced game that consisted of quick passing and early forechecking. It was halftime in the Schluefweg Arena and Kloten was once again on the attack, this time James Sheppard waited patiently with the puck on his stick, ploughing through the Davos defense before he saw the gap and scored his 8th goal in the Flyers dress with 32 minutes played. Klotens Collenberg gave Davos a first chance at a powerplay but the Flyers had no trouble fending off the chances, actually, the home team created 2 great chances before Dick Axelsson was benched for unsportsmanlike conduct in the final minute of the second period.

We jump to the 8th minute of the final period, the pace of the game had slowed down a little. Genoni was replaced by Gilles Senn in the goal of Davos but Kloten still had the upper hand in this game. Corsin Casutt was the next Flyer to score a goal when the game clock stopped wit 12 minutes left, newly acquired Mathis Olimb had fed him with a pass from the right face off circle. It was Collenberg again, this time for delay of the game in the 50th minute and this time Marc Wieser was able to capitalize on the powerplay and score the second goal for Davos. Devin Setoguchi was given a chance on a penalty but he was lacking motivation and so Gerber had no problems to keep his goal clean on the attempt. The final minutes were played out without any further goals but another minor penalty against Davos with one and half minutes left against Alexandre Picard for roughing.

"We knew we all had to deliver a top performance if we wanted to have a chance to win. And tonight everyone of us skated for the other, this was a great effort by the whole team" Captain Denis Hollenstein explained after the game. "We have a good team and we know what we can achieve if we all focus on the game. Every game we play (as of now) is a play off game for us, we have to try to get 3 points in every game" he continued. The Flyers now have a week off before the next game against EV Zug and Biel on Sunday. 6 games remain in the regular season and the Flyers are trailing a play off spot by 3 points.

Tweets by @eurohockey