Zürich ties final series

ZSC Lions - SC Bern 2:1

Bern had the better start into the game and was more active during the first period - without using one of their opportunities. At the begin of the second they did it better and Joel Vermin, who started in his own team's defensive zone, went over the left wing with a lot of speed, no one attacked him and against three defending ZSC players he fired the puck into the right corner. Just two minutes later Andreas Ambühl's backhander missed the net from a short distance and Bern was lucky not to have received the equalizer that early. Again and again Ambühl had best chances but a good guest goalie and the lack of luck prevented a goal by him. In the 47th Zürich's pressure was finally rewarded with the 1-1. First Steve McCarthy missed the net but the rebound came from the boards directly next to the goal where Blaine Down was the first to react and score. Now the ZSC Lions had the better momentum and they wanted to keep their clean sheet in home games of this year's playoffs. In the 55th minute Mark Bastl received the puck at the blue line and his cross pass found Thibaut Monnet who deked out the goalie to score via backhander. A great effort during the last two periods let Zürich earn the important first win in this final series.  

Series tied 1-1

SC Langenthal - HC Ambrì-Piotta 0:3

The home side went into the match with the clear task of getting the first win of the series to not let Ambrì run away. The NLB champions were as good as Ambri during the first minutes of the game but then Marc Eichmann, goalie of the SC Langenthal, was behind his goal to get the puck faster to one of his defenders. Instead he lost it and Elias Bianchi sent the puck into the empty net in the 11th minute. Early in the second Inti Pestoni made a pass to Vitaly Lakhmatov whose first try from a short distance was saved but the rebound went over the goal line. Langenthal tried to come back but even a 5 on 3 power play didn't help them to score. Instead Vitaly Lakhamtov with his second of the night - this time an empty netter - made it 0-3 with less than a minute to go.
Now Ambrì can already come very close to a decision in this series in the case of an home win on Saturday.   
                
Ambrì leads 2-0 in the series

 

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