2:1 and 3:1 – these are the results from the weekend. “They were very close games that tipped in our favour in the end,” Leonardo Genoni, who played a key role in the two full victories, summed up on Monday afternoon after training. “We had a clear plan in defence. If you concede a maximum of two goals – or even better, just one – then you have a chance of winning.” The last time Zug conceded two or fewer goals was on 3 January in a 2-1 defeat after overtime against Kloten. The last time Genoni celebrated a shutout was on 30 October in Geneva.

So now two games with only one goal conceded in each and two wins – which have put the team in a good mood: “When you win, you see more smiling faces,” says new head coach Benoît Groulx. “In the short time I’ve been here, I’ve noticed a good feeling among the team. Of course, I can’t say what it was like before, but they are attentive in training, understand what I want and also talk to each other a lot.” What is key for Groulx: he wants “high tempo practices”, i.e. high intensity with a lot of speed in training – because “that’s how we want to play”.

The next challenge awaits the Canadian behind the EVZ bench and his team on Tuesday. It won’t be easy to continue the positive trend in Davos of all places. Groulx approaches the game without any preconceptions, admitting that he only watched his first HCD game on Monday afternoon. Some of the players in the Grisons squad are familiar to him, such as his compatriots Adam Tambellini and Brendan Lemieux. But he also knows Jan Alston, General Manager at Davos, from his youth: “We used to play against each other when we were teenagers!” That was in the mid-1980s in Quebec’s junior leagues. 40 years later, Alston and Groulx will meet again in the Landwasser Valley.