What had been looming for some time has been finalised since Thursday evening: EVZ will not make the direct play-off qualification. After the 2:1 defeat on penalties against SC Bern, this is no longer possible in purely mathematical terms. Nevertheless, there is good news from Bern. Thanks to the points, EVZ will definitely finish the regular season in 7th or 8th place. This means that even if they were to lose the first play-in round, they would still have a second chance to make the play-offs in play-in round 2.

But first it’s about finishing the regular season with as good a feeling as possible. And there’s nothing better than a win in the last home game of the regular season. The SCRJ Lakers await the EVZ and that is particularly explosive for two reasons.

– The last time they met the Lakers in the OYM Hall in September, they suffered a heavy 6-0 defeat. The aim is to make up for this.

– There are many indications that the Lakers, of all teams, will be the opponents in the first play-in round. So Saturday will be the duel before the duel, so to speak.

EVZ fans can read all the play-in calculations at this link. Zug will face Rapperswil with an unchanged line-up. Coach Benoît Groulx is still missing the injured Andreas Wingerli, Fabrice Herzog, Samuel Guerra and Nic Balestra. The most prominent absentee on the Rappi side is captain Nico Dünner, with Jacob Larsson taking over as captain.