The ZSC Lions celebrate their seventh win in a row: Thanks to two late goals, they duped EV Zug and won 3:2. The ZSC equalizes 89 seconds before the end – and scores two seconds before the end to win. Memories of 2012 come alive.
In ecstasy: The ZSC pros around the winning goal scorer Justin Azevedo (right).
Before EV Zug and the ZSC Lions met for the first time in a play-off final on Monday, something like a scholarly dispute broke out over the question of who should actually be favored in this series: the title holder and qualification winner Zug? Or Zurich, the most expensive European ice hockey team outside of the KHL?
Somehow the experts halfway agreed on the platitudes that an intense, open, competitive, balanced series should be expected. But it doesn’t matter who the fans, the journalists, the TV commentators see as favorites. The truth lies in the odds of the bookmaker. And there the EV Zug was highly favored for Game 1; the ZSC Lions were quoted as 3.5:1 outsiders.
Bodenmann’s recipe
Bookmakers are very often right with their evaluations, which is why their business generates billions in international profits. But even they could not foresee this wild start to the final series.
ZSC striker Simon Bodenmann said at the weekend that the recipe against Zug’s world-class goalie Leonardo Genoni was simple: you had to take his sights away. That’s easier said than done against the robust EVZ defence. But his teammates remembered his words: When ZSC was 2-1 down and facing defeat shortly before the end, the indestructible champion Chris Baltisberger put himself in the slot and deflected a shot from Christian Marti untenably.
The equalizer was controversial, Zug coach Dan Tangnes took a challenge because of goalkeeper disability. And lost, which resulted in a two-minute penalty. “It was a 50-50 decision. Baltisberger’s skates were outside the goal circle, his elbow was inside. We took a risk and lost. It happens,” said Tangnes, who appeared composed and combative. EVZ almost found victory when outnumbered, but national striker Dario Simion failed 67 seconds before the end in extremis at Jakub Kovar.
Azevedo’s shot at happiness
At the other end, coach favorite Justin Azevedo, who was often transparent in these play-offs, scored the winning goal on the power play two seconds before the end of regulation time. It was the spectacular, abrupt end of an entertaining, high-quality game that EVZ thought they had already won after 37 minutes.
Grégory Hofmann caught Kovar between the schooners in the 34th minute, followed by Fabrice Herzog three minutes later. It speaks for ZSC that it didn’t give up and found a way to beat Leonardo Genoni, who had been outstanding for a long time, three times in the final third.
For the EVZ, the turbulent events meant the first defeat in this play-off, after eight wins in a row. It was the seventh win in a row for ZSC. “The ZSC is back,” sang the Zurich fans in the Bossard Arena. And is undoubtedly right: After the break, the ZSC prospects for the tenth championship title in the club’s history are better than ever.
And it’s fitting that in National League playoff games, for the first time in almost exactly ten years, a winning goal has come after 59:58 minutes. It’s a time that is forever burned into ZSC’s memory: On April 17, 2012, Steve McCarthy shot ZSC to the title in the Finalissima in Bern two seconds before the end.