For the Czech player, returning to the Gotthard South Portal will be a special occasion: he played for the Biancoblù in the 2017/18 and 2018/19 seasons and again last season. In 2019, he finished the season as the league’s top scorer and left Leventina for the NHL. During his last stint in Ambrì, he scored 27 goals – more than any other player in the National League.

Now the forward is returning to his old home with EVZ. He does so as one of EVZ’s top scorers – in seven games, he has scored three goals and four assists so far. Only Tomas Tatar has one more point to his name (two goals, six assists) and only David Sklenicka has scored more often for Zug (four times). Overall, imports have been responsible for 15 of the 20 goals scored in the seven games so far.

«I’m really looking forward to the game in Ambrì. It’s always special to play against old friends. They had a very difficult start to the season, so I’m expecting a tough game—Ambrì works hard and never gives up. They want to finally score points again in front of their home crowd.»

Dominik Kubalik, Top Scorer EVZ

Ambrì-Piotta has had a terrible start to the championship – after its opening victory against EHC Kloten at the San Gottardo Arena, it suffered six defeats in a row and earned only one point in penalty shootouts. As a result, it currently ranks 13th in the table, level on points with bottom-placed Ajoie, but with a slightly better goal difference of -10.

Zug are in 7th place after gaining a point in Tuesday evening’s shootout – four points behind 2nd place and four points ahead of 8th to 10th place. In the away table, EVZ are currently in 3rd place with two wins from two games, behind HCD and ZSC Lions, their opponents on Saturday.

Head coach Michael Liniger will have to do without defenseman Mischa Geisser on Friday, who is suspended for the game against Ambrì after receiving a game misconduct penalty on Tuesday evening.