Lions run over Servette, earn ticket to NLA Final

All or nothing, holidays or first time derby Final in the history of NLA playoffs. The Lions had statistics on their side, after all, 80% of all Teams playing game 7 at home won. The players were welcomed by a fanatic crowd and so the game started with the Lions trying to show Genève who would advance to the Final where the Kloten Flyers were waiting.

With 6 minutes played Top Scorer Matthew Lombardi was benched for High Sticking and gave the Lions a first chance for a powerplay. And it didn't take Zurich long as Bergeron fired a slapshot from the blue line passed Goalie Stephan. In the minutes that followed, the Lions managed to keep up the tempo and put pressure on Genève's defense and with 12 minutes played Lions Ryan Shannon curved around the goal and found the perfect moment to beat Stephan above the shoulder. In the 14th minute it was Christoph Rivera who sat down for Cross-checking his opponent but Zurich was held down to a handful of chances.

The second period started rather slow, neither Team taking control. 4 minutes into the period, Antonietti was assessed with a High Sticking penalty but seconds later, ZSC's Nilsson was benched for Tripping and yet only a few seconds later it was Captain Mathias Seger who joined his Teammate for Slashing but Servette wasn't able to create much pressure and so the 2 man advantage elapsed without any further goals. In the 11th minute the Lions were awarded a penalty shot after Eliot Antonietti took Robert Nilsson off his skates on a breakaway. Nilsson took the attempt himself and scored the 3rd goal of the evening. With this, Servette now had the monumental task of scoring at least 3 goals while only having 5 shots on goal during the first period (Zurich had 15!). With a little more than 3 minutes to play Top Scorer Roman Wick was assessed for a Check against the head with a 2 + 10 minute penalty. But instead of a Servette powerplay Ryan Shannon with a breakaway was able to score a shorthanded goal. Faced with this impossible situation, Geneva's frustration grew which ended with Alexandre Picard being sent to the bench of Roughing. With the end of the second period the game was decided.

With 2 minutes played in the last period, Captain Goran Bezina was benched for Roughing and it was palpable that Servette had given up any hope of winning game 7. Luckily, ZSC's powerplay formation didn't produce any dangerous chances. The fans now started chanting "Finale ooh, Finale, ooh" just like the crowd in Kloten had done 2 days earlier.

With this win, the Lions and Flyers will meet for the first time ever in a playoff final. The Lions had finished 21 points ahead of Kloten. 4 out of 6 direct confrontations were won by the Lions so the predictions for the final seem to be clear. Kloten had the advantage of resting for 2 extra days before the serie starts this coming Saturday. It's also expected to be a tough series off the ice, the fans of both team aren't exactly friends so some skirmish will definitely be involved in the clash of the Canton of Zurich.

Referees: Stefan Eichmann, Danny Kurmann
Linesmen: Roger Arm, Peter Küng

Spectators @Hallenstadion: 10'394

1. Goal 6. Minute Bergeron, 2. 12. Shannon (Keller, Roman Wick), 3. 31. Nilsson (Penalty Shot), 4. 39. Shannon (shorthanded)

ZSC Lions: Flüeler; Bergeron, Stoffel; McCarthy, Seger(C); Geering, Blindenbacher (A); Schnyder, Künzle; Wick, Shannon (A), Keller; Kenins, Cunti Bärtschi; Bastl, Fritsche, Nilsson; Schäppi, Senteler, Baltisberger.

Genève-Servette: Stephan; Bezina (C), Antonietti; Marti, Vukovic; Iglesias, Mercier; Girardin, Jacquemet; Almond (A), Rod, Simek; Hollenstein, Romy (A), Berthon; Picard, Lombardi, Daugavins; Petrell, Rivera, Gerber.

SOG by period:
ZSC:  1. 15 / 2. 3 / 3. 3
HCSG:   1. 5 / 2. 5 / 3. 9

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