The ZSC Lions win again and march towards the semi-finals. At the battered opponent Biel, striker Mike Künzle draws the coach’s anger. In the winter, the attacker was almost part of a spectacular swap deal.
Lack of discipline: Striker Mike Künzle (left) cost EHC Biel their break on Monday evening.
Ennio Leanza / KEYSTONE
It’s not too often that you’ve experienced moments in which Martin Steinegger is speechless. But when asked about his striker Mike Künzle, the Biel sports director and interim coach preferred to say: Nothing. And when asked whether there would be a one-on-one conversation after Monday evening’s events, Steinegger squeezed out this sentence: “He’ll be in Zug soon.”
Künzle, 30, is in his sixth and final season in Biel. He was one of the top performers on this team for years. And embodied the type of transfer with which Steinegger patiently transformed Biel into a serious title candidate: Künzle had been misunderstood in a major club, the ZSC. And then started with more responsibility at the rebellious challenger Biel.
Lugano defender Calle Andersson almost ended up in Biel
But since it became clear that the winger would be joining EV Zug in the summer, the relationship has cooled down. Künzle sat partly in the stands, and he was almost transferred early in the winter: a spectacular triangular deal, in which Lugano’s defender Calle Andersson would have ended up in Biel, was about to be completed. The deal fell through, Künzle stayed. His performances got better, but now, in the final stages of his years in Biel, the Zurich native is playing an unfortunate role. On Monday evening he cost his team the game with a galloping, unnecessary trip in the opponent’s zone. The ZSC, in the person of Latvian national striker Rudolfs Balcers, needed 41 seconds to use the power play to score the winning goal. On Saturday in Zurich, a two-minute penalty against Künzle resulted in a goal being conceded. The ZSC power play is deadly these days: in the first two games the success rate is 100 percent, and the favorite scored once when a penalty was indicated.
Künzle has something moody this season, his performances are changeable. At times he seems like one of the most irresistible power forwards in the league. Then he only attracts attention with avoidable punishments. Even in the play-in against Ambri-Piotta and Geneva/Servette, Künzle was repeatedly in the penalty box. Now it’s no different against the ZSC. And Biel cannot afford a lack of discipline against this strong opponent.
Zurich may still be two wins short of reaching the semi-finals, and both previous duels were so close that they were only decided in the final third. But on Monday it felt like the decision in this series had already been made. Especially since the Biel team’s legs are getting heavier: the 1:3 was their sixth appearance in the last twelve days. And the last days and weeks of the era of coach Petri Matikainen, who was fired three games before the end of the qualification, seem to have cost a lot of emotional energy – the Finnish coach repeatedly made a massive mistake in his tone. And I’m lucky that none of his tirades are reproduced in public.
The physical and mental strain were bad omens for a Biel exploit. But Steinegger says he won’t use fatigue as an excuse – after all, a number of leading players (Heponiemi, Lööv, Olofsson) haven’t played very many games this season. He complained much more that “that certain extra” was missing. And he also noted a “lack of hunger.” He said: “It’s a bit like saying about a child at school: ‘He tried hard.’ You can’t be mad at him. But it’s just not enough to really achieve anything.”
Will former U20 national player Nicolas Müller move to Biel?
So it may be that the final curtain will soon fall for this Biel ensemble. A quick quarterfinal exit against the best team in the league is no shame. But the people of Biel certainly had different ideas for themselves this spring, after a single win was missing from their first championship title of the play-off era a year ago.
A new era will begin in Biel at the end of the season: In addition to Künzle, Joren Van Pottelberghe (Lugano), Yannick Rathgeb (Gottéron), Luca Hischier (Geneva/Servette), Tino Kessler (Davos) and the defender legend Beat Forster (retirement) are leaving A number of prominent players join the club. In contrast, Steinegger hasn’t presented too many newcomers yet. After all: According to reports, former U20 national player Nicolas Müller (24, Michigan State University), who is courted by several clubs, is about to move to Biel.