Biel turned a balanced match in the Hallenstadion in the middle third and can decide the series after Saturday’s 3-1 win at home. Meanwhile, EV Zug is the first semi-finalist.
The ZSC player Garrett Roe is visibly disappointed after the lost home game, he had managed to give the Lions a temporary lead.
Whatever the outcome of this series, whoever makes it into the semi-finals at the end: The ZSC Lions against EHC Biel will go down in the chronicles of this year’s play-offs as a duel between two teams that are practically equal. It’s the nuances that decide. Luck, goalkeeper performance or one or the other individual mistake.
In Thursday’s Game 5 at the Hallenstadion, it was Garrett Roe who became the key figure. However, not in the way he and his coach Rikard Grönborg wished. In the 19th minute, the 34-year-old American was still the hero as he completed an exemplary attack via Sven Andrighetto and Justin Azevedo to make it 1-0. But then, in the 29th minute, Roe put Toni Rajala on the stick completely unchallenged and made it possible for the Biel top scorer to take the 2-1 lead.
First Biel goal after 170 minutes of play
Tino Kessler had previously equalized Zurich’s opening goal in the 23rd minute, ending more than 170 minutes of play in Biel without a goal and 80 shots saved by Zurich goalie Jakub Kovar. The goal was a liberation for Biel and turned a game that the Lions had previously controlled more or less easily. They were lucky in the 6th minute when Fabio Hofer hit the post in the first overtime game. After that, they rarely got into serious trouble until they equalized.
Azevedo hit the post just before the end of the middle third and Denis Hollenstein fired unchallenged over the open goal with around eight minutes remaining. But although Zurich increased the intensity and clearly dominated the match again in the final phase, they were no longer able to equalize. 41 seconds before the end, Hofer scored 3-1 in the abandoned Zürcher Tor.
The Lions have their backs to the wall in their sixth game at the Biel Ice Stadium on Saturday. The next loss in the series will end their season and spark questions. How is it possible that such a top-class team, led by a two-time world champion coach, gets into such trouble against a side like EHC Biel?
Before the start of the series everything spoke in favor of the Lions. But so far they have owed practically everything to these early praises. The team tries. But as in the qualification, she shows an almost frightening helplessness when the opponent gets up to serious resistance. As so often this season, the Zurich game lacked a direct goal. The return of Denis Malgin, who had missed the last match with an upper body injury, didn’t let a jolt go through the team.
The Lions take heart from the fact that they have won 3 out of 4 games in Biel this season. But that’s a statistic that will only help you to a limited extent, as you have your back against the wall. Match 5 will be a nerve-wracking game for them one way or the other. To make matters worse, Biel was able to compete for the first time on Thursday with his Swiss top line with Mike Künzle, Luca Cunti and Damien Brunner.
Train against Lugano sovereign
One thing is already clear: if the Lions season is to continue, they have to go the maximum distance of seven games in the quarterfinals. EV Zug, title contender number 1 and potential main opponent of the Lions, qualified directly against HC Lugano as the first team for the semi-finals. After just 31 minutes, the champions were leading 5-0 in Ticino and then allowed themselves some free skating and Lugano scored three more goals at the end of the season (5-3).
HC Davos extended its season by beating the Rapperswil-Jona Lakers 2-0 2-0 at least into a fifth match. The Grisons paid for this first win with two ugly fouls from Magnus Nygren and Sven Jung, which could still have an aftermath. Finally, in the fourth series, Fribourg-Gottéron won 4-1 in Lausanne and can also reach the semi-finals at home on Saturday.
ZSC Lions (3rd) – Biel (6th) 2: 3. – ZSC Lions – Biel 4: 5 (1: 0, 1: 3, 2: 2). Biel – ZSC Lions 4:3 (0:0, 1:3, 2:0, 1:0) a.e.t. ZSC Lions – Biel 1:0 (0:0, 0:0, 0:0, 0: 0, 1:0) a.e.t. Biel – ZSC Lions 0:1 (0:0, 0:1, 0:0). ZSC Lions – Biel 1:3 (1:0, 0:2, 0:1).
Train (1st) – Lugano (9th) 4:0. – Zug – Lugano 2:1 (0:0, 1:0, 0:1, 1:0) a.e.t. Lugano – Zug 2:6 (0:1, 1:0, 1:5). Train – Lugano 6: 3 (0: 0, 2: 2, 4: 1). Lugano – Zug 3:5 (0:3, 0:2, 3:0).
Fribourg-Gottéron (2nd) – Lausanne (7th) 3: 1. – Fribourg-Gottéron – Lausanne 2-0 (1-0, 1-0, 0-0). Lausanne 5-4 Fribourg-Gottéron (2-2, 0-0, 2-2, 1-0) aet Fribourg-Gottéron 3-2 Lausanne (2-0, 0-1, 0-1, 0:0, 0:0, 1:0) aet Lausanne – Fribourg-Gottéron 1:4 (0:0, 1:4, 0:0).
Rapperswil-Jona Lakers (4th) – Davos (5th) 3: 1. – Rapperswil-Jona Lakers – Davos 4: 3 (0: 1, 3: 0, 1: 2). Davos – Rapperswil-Jona Lakers 1: 4 (0: 1, 1: 0, 0: 3). Rapperswil-Jona Lakers – Davos 4: 0 (0: 0, 3: 0, 1: 0). Davos – Rapperswil-Jona Lakers 2-0 (1-0, 0-0, 1-0).