- EV Zug wins the 4th game in the playoff final against the ZSC Lions away at the Hallenstadion 4:1.
- Again, the team that was behind first prevails – for the first time it’s the people of Zug.
- In the best-of-7 series, the central Swiss team shortened it to 1:3. Let’s continue with game 5 on Wednesday.
Everything would have been arranged for the big ZSC championship bash in the Hallenstadion. On the day of Zurich’s Sechseläuten, however, EV Zug became a big spoilsport. The Central Swiss fell behind for the first time ever in the final series, but managed to turn things around before the middle of the game.
And this time the people of Zug didn’t give up their lead. The guests were close to 3:1 several times before it worked in the 52nd minute: Dario Simion placed the disc in the goal after Jan Kovar had passed it on with his ice skate. Niklas Hansson definitely secured Zug’s first victory in the final series with a shot into the empty goal.
Now it also works with the luck of the competition
So the ZSC has to wait until at least Wednesday before it has the next chance to win the 10th championship title in the club’s history. Or is the first victory in Zug the beginning of a really big turning point? Since the introduction of the best-of-7 mode, no team has managed to come from a 0-3 deficit in a series of finals.
In the previous three games, the EVZ didn’t necessarily have the much-cited competitive luck on their side. This was different in the 4th game of the final series. Symbolic of this was the opening goal in Zug by Christian Djoos (25th) to make it 2-1. The Swede’s shot hit Jakub Kovar’s mask, jumped from there to Patrick Geering’s arm and from there into the goal.
Malgin ensures perfect ZSC start
To attribute Zug’s first victory in the playoff final solely to luck in the competition is not enough. The guests were the better team in 5 against 5, at times they really constricted the Lions in their own third. The shot ratio in the end was 38:21 in favor of EVZ.
The game – it could have been the last one in the Hallenstadion – had started well for the people of Zurich. They survived an early penalty unscathed and shortly afterwards took the lead through Denis Malgin (5th). After a Zug puck loss, this was launched by Sven Andrighetto, got it from the last remaining Zug field player and defeated Leonardo Genoni. The mood was really high.
With the equalization by Yannick Zehnder (13th), this then received a first setback. And the people of Zug left three more episodes.