Fearful opponent Langnau? EVZ have only managed to pick up a single point against the Emmental side this season. This dates back more than four months to the Tigers’ last visit to Zug. After EVZ took a 3:0 lead, the visitors turned the game around from the 40th minute onwards with three unanswered goals. 15 seconds before the end of overtime, it was Harri Pesonen who finally decided the game with his second personal goal of the evening. It was the first defeat of the season in the third game for the Zug team. Since then, they have lost 22 more, ten of them at the start of 2026 alone.

On Friday evening, however, the EVZ was finally able to break its protracted losing streak under new head coach Benoît Groulx. Away in Kloten, all was far from well, but thanks to goals from top scorer Dominik Kubalik and captain Jan Kovar in the final period, the Zug team travelled home through the Gubrist with a 2-1 win and three points in the bag.

Now the first win of the season should also come against Langnau. The two teams are neighbours in the table ahead of their fourth meeting: Langnau are just one point behind the EVZ after their home loss after overtime against bottom-placed Ajoie with one more game played.

Sean Malone will be playing against the Central Swiss team for the first time this season. The Tigers brought the 30-year-old American back to Emmental a few days ago after he had been under contract with Örebro in the SHL for six months. Malone has been one of Langnau’s best scorers over the past two seasons – in 2023-24, he put up 37 points (13 goals, 24 assists) in 51 games and 23 points (7 goals, 23 assists) in 39 games a year later.