Zug has played three home games in a row since last Saturday – the final game will be against HC Ajoie at the OYM Hall on Friday evening. It will be the last meeting between the two teams this season. Ajoie is bottom of the table with twelve rounds to go in the regular season and will most likely have to go into the play-offs, while EVZ is still fighting for direct play-off qualification to avoid the play-ins. But Zug are slowly but surely losing touch with 6th place.

EVZ have taken seven points from the three duels so far, Ajoie two. After a 3:1 away win in the Jura at the beginning of October, the EVZ swept the HCA out of the arena with an 8:3 victory at the end of October. At the end of November, however, they lost again in Porrentruy on penalties. It is to be hoped that Friday’s game will see another ketchup effect (in the last home game, Zug scored four goals in the last nine minutes against Ajoie, three of them in the last two minutes) to finally undo the button that has been tightening ever more since the start of the year.

EVZ were also unable to pick up any points at home against HC Lugano on Wednesday. They were trailing 0:3 until the 38th minute, before Grégory Hofmann reduced the deficit to 1:3. It was Hofmann again 22 seconds before the end who scored the second goal for Zug with a hammer from the blue line after a pass from Tomas Tatar, but that was only cosmetic. EVZ were also unable to create enough danger in front of their opponents’ goal against Lugano, firing only 16 shots on goal. Tim Wolf, on the other hand, saved 38 of the 41 shots that came his way and was honoured as the best player in the end.

After the home game against Ajoie, a road trip is on the programme for the EVZ: On Saturday afternoon, the team and staff travel to Genève-Servette, who are currently on a real run. From Geneva, the journey continues on Sunday afternoon to Luleå, where the CHL semi-final second leg will take place on Tuesday. Zug go into the game trailing 2:3 and must have scored at least one more goal than the Swedes after 60 minutes to save themselves in overtime or qualify directly for the CHL final for the first time. Finally, the team will travel back to Zug on Wednesday. The next away game follows on Friday at EHC Kloten in the airport city before the home game against the SCL Tigers on Saturday, 24 January.

JOHANN MORANT ON WALL OF FAME

Before the game against his youth club Ajoie, Johann Morant will be officially honoured and immortalised on the Wall of Fame. Morant played for EVZ from 2014 to 2020, making 252 games for Zug and scoring 37 points (9 goals). The defenceman also collected a total of 499 penalty minutes.

Under the direction of Harold Kreis and Dan Tangnes, the Frenchman with a Swiss playing licence developed from a seemingly unteachable goon into a solid defensive defenceman. In 2019, Morant won the Cup with the EVZ – the only title of his career. After moving to the ZSC Lions, the now 39-year-old suffered a serious knee injury during a training session in March 2021 and never returned to the ice.

Johann Morant will be immortalised on the Wall of Fame in the 3rd category thanks to his five seasons with the EVZ.