The ZSC Lions remain flawless in the play-offs. Zug coach Dan Tangnes is again annoyed with the referees. But the question is whether the EV train can stand up again. It is the opportunity to prove that the high fees paid to the Oym Athletic Center are money well invested.
With coolness to the next success: Sven Andrighetto shoots the ZSC to victory in Zug.
Urs Flueeler / KEYSTONE
Six games, six wins: ZSC cannot be stopped in the play-offs. And so far it has impressively demonstrated who has the best, most expensive, most balanced team in the league. This is still no guarantee that the ZSC will be able to celebrate the tenth championship title in the club’s history at the end of the month – in 2021/22 even nine wins in a row were not enough.
But there is something disillusioning about the way the ZSC wears down its challengers for the opposition. He has enough firepower to make the difference on some nights with offensive sparkle. Above all, you can rely on what is by far the best defense in Swiss ice hockey. This was evident once again on Wednesday in Zug: a single goal from Sven Andrighetto was enough to win. Whatever the stylish interceptors around defense chief Dean Kukan don’t defuse, the Czech national goalkeeper Simon Hrubec picks up. Hrubec, 32, is the best goalie in the league; His signing in June 2022 was one of the best official acts by sports director Sven Leuenberger in recent years.
Even before the series began, it was difficult to imagine a scenario in which the decimated, weakened EVZ could seriously endanger a rested ZSC. Now, with a 2-0 lead behind us, it seems almost impossible.
Certainly: Zug was close, they could have won the game. And, as on Monday, they struggled with referee decisions. After the game, coach Dan Tangnes angrily said after a few sentences of praise for his team’s performance that he would much rather talk about “completely different shit,” but that he wasn’t allowed to. Tangnes is one of the highest-earning coaches in Europe; He works for a club at whose home games the puck is transported to the center circle before each game by one of the most bizarre mascots in the sports world: “Mister Money”, a figure enigmatically reminiscent of a portion of French fries who takes on representative purposes for the local cantonal bank . In short: The coach could probably afford a fine for publicly criticizing the referee, purely financially. But he preferred not to elaborate.
Zug’s renewed frustration with the referees
You can understand Zug’s frustration. In Game 1, a five-minute penalty in the middle third made the difference; ZSC used it to score three goals. On Wednesday, striker Andreas Eder was given a two-plus-two minute penalty in the 50th minute. The EVZ survived the box play, but conceded the winning goal a few seconds after the penalty expired. As on Monday, the Zugers felt they were being unduly punished, Tangnes was already rumbling on the boards. But once again the verdict was justifiable.
The question is whether the EVZ can pick itself up again. The striker Lino Martschini said: Yes. The performance was so good that you were able to “refuel a lot in your heart”. It may have been one of those typical slogans of perseverance that are stuttered warmly into the microphones in the play-offs even in the most hopeless situation, but at least it was creative: not many people have thought of drawing strength from a very painful defeat.
Despite his anger, Tangnes didn’t seem discouraged either. He said: «We can play better. And we will do it.” In terms of fitness and energy, he doesn’t see any problem, even though his team had to play three more games than ZSC in the quarter-finals: “We now have a two-day break, that’s no problem.”
Is the Oym for the EVZ worth the high cost? Internally, this has long been a question of faith
And actually that’s how it has to be. Since the “Oym” center for top athletics, supported by billionaire EVZ President Hans-Peter Strebel, was opened in Cham in 2020, it has been an elementary part of Zug’s DNA to point out at every opportunity that people are training a little more progressively and are becoming smarter than the European competition. The EVZ transfers a considerable sum every year in order to be able to use the offers there, which have also been devised by ETH scientists. Internally, exponents from the sports sector have already complained that it would be very helpful to curb these expenses and be able to use more money on foreign positions.
Anyone who looks at the Zug squad knows which faction has the upper hand in this question of faith: The EVZ foreigners are among the weakest in the league in terms of their cross sum, and there are currently simply too few players in their sextet who could make the difference. On Wednesday, German attacker Marc Michaelis had the chance to decide the game. He grimaced miserably.
Of course, the Zug exponents can cling to the fact that they won the 2022 play-off final against the same opponent even after being 3-0 down. But Zurich’s vulnerability of those days seems distant today. And the irresistibility of the EVZ too.