NLB playoffs start today

11 Feb 2011 | Henrik Lundqvist

Tonight at 20:00 start the Swiss National League B Quarter Finals. HC La Chaux-de-Fonds won the regular season and choose to play against Sierre-Anniviers.

Chaux-de-Fonds finished the regular season 9 points ahead of Olten anf Lausanne to win the league and get to choose Quarter Final opponent first. As expected they choose Sierre-Anniviers who finished 8th. In the five games they have played this season Chaux-de-Fondshas won 3 and Sierre-Anniviers 2.

Langenthal will play last year's final series loser Visp. Langenthal finished 4th and Visp 6th but Langenthal has only been able to win one of the five games between the teams.

Last year Lausanne won the NLB finals against Visp 4-1. Visp won the first game 5-1 but then Lausanne won four in a row. In this year's Quarter Finals Lausanne will face Ajoie. Ajoie finished 7th in the regular season. Lausanne 3rd. Lausanna has beaten Ajoie four times this season and lost one (in overtime).

The last of the four Quarter Final series is played between second placed Olten and fifth placed Basel. Olten won the first two games between the teams this season but then Basel won the last three. Olten was the team that scored most goals during the regular season - 192, an average of 4.27, but Basel was the team with second best goals against average - 3.02.

The Quarter Final series are best-of-7, just like the Semi Finals and the Finals. The dates for the Quarter Finals are February 11, 13, 15, 18, 20, 22 and 25. This season there are no NLB Play-Outs. GCK Lions finished 9th and HC Thurgau 10th.