There was great excitement on Friday. Finally, a home game again, a refurbished arena – and to top it all off, a convincing 4–1 victory over Lausanne. That made the fall all the harder 24 hours later.

The EVZ were thrashed 0–5 in Biel. The Zug side failed to bring the energy that had characterised their performance on Friday to the ice during their first back-to-back weekend of the 2026/27 season. Of course, the evening could have turned out differently had one of the two pucks that clattered against the Biel goal frame in the opening period, with the score at 0–0, gone in. But there’s no such thing as ‘what if’ in ice hockey either.

So let’s focus on the facts. And they are: Tuesday evening, 7.45 pm. Home game. OYM Hall. Lugano. A chance to make amends.

Things were supposed to be different at the start of the season in Ticino. Although the Lugano side have the same number of points as EVZ, they have played five (!) more matches. They are ahead of Zug in the table because the head-to-head record counts, and EVZ lost that fixture in September. In their third match of the current season, Zug suffered a 2–3 defeat after extra time at the Corner Arena. A win tonight would definitely see them overtake Lugano in the table once again.

From EVZ’s perspective, the league table is still not particularly indicative. 12th place – but the second-best points average. Will this record be improved tonight? The opposition are also struggling with injuries. On Monday, Lugano announced that Calvin Thürkauf, Alessio Bertaggia and Jesper Peltonen would be out for the long term. All three will return to action after Christmas at the earliest.

Meanwhile, EVZ head coach Lauri Marjamäki must continue to do without Lino Martschini, Lukas Bengtsson, Chris Egli and, most recently, Eric Schneller. Schneller suffered a concussion in the match against Lausanne and is listed as week-to-week in the medical report.