NLA: Kloten vs Davos season opener

13 Sep 2013 | Andreas Reiner

Major changes in the Kloten Flyers coaching staff lead to first positive surprise.

After a summer with many turbulances including the hiring of Kloten Legend Felix Hollenstein as head coach, fan favourite Kimmo Rintanen as Assistant Coach the Flyers were hoping to leave last season behind them. It saw the Flyers go to the Play-Outs, almost facing relegation to the National League B.

The disastrous Management of the past seasons has been replaced with fresh blood, eager not to repeat the same mistakes. Time will tell if, and how Kloten will face the new challenges but the newly won optimism has infected everyone involved in and around Kloten. The result, an NHL-style laser show opening, presenting the succesful past of the club but also showing the young guns recording the new club anthem in a 7 minute video.

Before the game, players from both teams were honoured for winning the silver medal at the 2013 World Championship in Sweden.

Both teams had a nervous start, trying to gain puck possession but weren't able to dominate on either side. It was finnish forward Tommi Santala who scored the first goal of the season assisted by the new boy in town, Peter Mueller. Seven minutes later it was 3rd liner Lukas Stoop with a beautiful slapshot scoring on Leonardo Genoni.

The second period saw Marcus Paulsson bring Davos on the scoreboard. Shortly after, Davos had a two man advantage but NHL approved goalie Martin Gerber was the expected insurance that the Flyers had acquired him for. He stopped all shots that were fired between his pipes during that powerplay.

The 3rd period opened with a lot of back and forth of both Teams, Kloten trying to decide the game while Davos was pushing for the game tying goal when Simon Bodenmann scored the 3rd goal assisted by Michael Liniger and Victor Stancescu. 4 Minutes before the end of the game, Matthias Bieber scored from behind the goal, making it 4:1. And the 7151 Fans at Kolping Arena were in for a treat as Tommi Santala scored his second goal of the evening, assisted by Matthias Bieber and Micki Dupont. The Kloten Flyers sent the Marmots back home with something to think of. Kloten was better offensively and better organised in their defense. The first line scored 3 goals and had 5 Assists.

It's going to be interesting to see if the Flyers can keep up the pace of this first game, it's going to be a long, long Season but a good start.

Best Player:
Kloten: Martin Gerber
Davos: Marcus Paulsson