ZSC Lions - Lausanne HC 3rd game 1/4 final

It was Saturday evening, the playoffs were on and the Lions were on home ice. Ergo, the crowd was expecting a great hockey night.

And neither Team disappointed in the starting minutes, trying to create scoring chances but no team was able to score that first goal. With 9:23 played, Ronald Kenins got a beautiful pass from
Patrick Bärtschi but his first attempt on Cristobal Huet was denied but the rebound went passed the pads of Lausanne's goal keeper.

The Lions kept on pushing and provoking Lausanne's defense and in the 12th minute John Gobbi attacked his opponent a wee too hard which gave him a 2' minor for roughing. The Lions couldn't score during the powerplay but were awarded yet another one-man advantage. Caryl Neuenschwander was assessed with a minor for tripping and only seconds later ZSC foward Luca Cunti was sent to the bench for hooking but both powerplays ended sans a goal. A chance from Mark Bastl 4 seconds before the end of the first period was stopped by Huet.

Period 2 started with a dominant Lions Team pushing for the second goal but not finding the gap between Huet's pipes. With Patrick Bärtschi and Ronald Kenins two of the most active ZSC players created one chance after another but it was the duo Reto Schäppi with the laid back assist to Ryan Shannon who shoved the puck passed Huet in the 27th minute. With 28:38 Roman Wick was in a perfect position in front of the crease to net the puck in backhand, assisted by Luca Cunti. At halftime of the second period, Ryan Keller was sent to the bench for boarding. Lausanne now had to take risks if the didn't want to loose this game in the second period already but the powerplay was weak, not one shot was fired at Lukas Flückiger. At 13:11 Lausanne was awarded another powerplay, Roman Wick was assessed with a 2' minor for tripping and this time Daniel Bang scored on Flückiger, assisted by Seydoux and Juha-Pekka Hytönen. The flood of 2' minute minor penalties didn't stop as Lukas Setzinger was benched for crosscheck and seconds later it was Lions player Severin Blindenbacher who cooled down in the box for delay of game.

Lausanne came out of the break a little more aggressive, looking for that 2nd goal but were stopped the the Lions defense time after time. Andri Stoffel from the Lions was sent to the bench for delay of the game with a little more than 10 minutes to go in the 3rd period but the romands weren't able to capitalise on the one-man advantage. Etienne Froidevaux was the next to take a seat for tripping. ZSC was able to set up their formation in the offensive zone but tonight the powerplay just didn't provide the chances to score goals. Next ZSC player to take place in the cooler box was Captain Mathias Seger for holding. With only 2 more minutes to play, Huet was replaced by a 6th player on the ice. But just seconds after the face-off Lausanne's Daniel Bang also took place on the bench for interference. With the next Lausanne attack, Huet was once again removed and a 5th player took his place but Lausanne couldn't turn around the game anymore.

ZSC Lions now lead the series with 2:1 before heading to Lausanne for game 2 on Tuesday.

Spectators @Hallenstadion: 10'722

Referees: Nadir Mandioni, Didier Massy
Linesmen: Gilles Mauron, Michael Tscherrig

SOG:
ZSC: 1. 10/ 2. 13 / 3. 6
LHC: 1. 4 / 2. 8 / 3. 12

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