Lugano is the second NLA finalist

After a tense and fantastic series, Lugano has made it: the club from the shores of Lake Ceresio will play the National League A finals after ten years. The Ticinesi finally defeated Geneva after being knocked out from the tournament by them for the previous two years. It was a long and troubled series, where both teams did their best to outscore the opponent:  three out of six games ended during the overtime, while most of them were won by the away team… Until yesterday evening, when Philippe Furrer scored on home ice (again in the overtime) a penalty goal which ultimately killed every hope of Servette.

The so-called Swedish line of Petterson, Martensson and Klasen, the speed of Grégory Hofmann, the inventive of Lapierre and Bertaggia were all ingredients for the ultimate success of this team, who started the season with an impressive negative record of losses and ultimately resurged since last November, with the coming of former NHL player Doug Shedden on its bench. A stronger training, a better rotation between players and higher motivations (which seemed completely lost during the final days of Patrick Fischer's tenancy) made the rest, as we already saw during their positive Spengler Cup campaign last December.

Now Lugano, who closed the regular season at fifth place, will meet this year's shocker SC Bern with home ice advantage: indeed, the Bears finished the home-and-away segment at eight place, sweeping the regular season's winners ZSC Lions in the quarter-finals and closing the series against reigning champions HC Davos after just five games. Will this year being another 2006, when Lugano defeated Davos in the finals to earn its seventh -and, for now, last- title? We'll see. What it's sure is that this time their opponents, the real underdogs of this year's action, will be highly motivated and ready to battle…

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