SC Bern won the last encounter in Zug on February 23 with 4:1. The away win is the positive exception for Bern, who have lost three of the four season duels and ten of the last twelve guest games in the BOSSARD Arena. With the 3:2 win after overtime against Servette, Zug ended their eight-game losing streak, five of them in front of their own fans.

However, it is also a sign that the 16-time champions and two-time cup winners have survived the lean years following their last championship title in 2019: After two ninth-place finishes, an eleventh and an eighth, the Bernese team qualified directly for the playoffs again for the first time in the 2023-24 regular season. A success for Jussi Tapola: after winning the Champions Hockey League and the fourth Finnish league title with Tappara Tampere in 2023, the 49-year-old Finn has put the Bernese team, which had been spoiled by success, back on the road to success.

In the last 10 rounds, SC Bern (10 games/18 points) has not only won in Zug, but also picked up 14 points more than EVZ (10/4). After 52 rounds, only two points were missing to Dan Tangnes’ team, who, however, does not take the last direct duel as a yardstick for the playoffs as much as the negative series at the end of the regular season. No wonder: in addition to forwards Brian O’Neill and Grégory Hofmann, regular defensemen Niklas Hansson, Tobias Geisser, Lukas Bengtsson and Livio Stadler have also been missing of late.

The season is definitely over only for Grégory Hofmann, who had surgery on his foot. Some of the sorely missed long-term injured players are expected back on Sunday or in the course of the playoffs. Even Brian O’Neill, who was ruled out of the last game in Bern, is still hoping for a comeback. This is one reason why the Zug head coach is confident about the quarter-finals: “Bern is an opponent on an equal footing, but we don’t have to hide and make ourselves smaller than we are.”  The results of this season: EVZ-Bern 3:2 a.p., Bern-EVZ 1:2 a.p., Bern-EVZ 2:6, EVZ-Bern 1:4.

Zug won the last meeting in the playoff quarter-finals of the 2020/21 season 4:2. After five home wins, they made everything clear in the 6th duel in the PostFinance Arena. Jérôme Bachofner (now with Biel) scored the only goal in the 38th minute after a brilliant assist from Santeri Alatalo (Lugano). The results from back then: EVZ-Bern 4:2, Bern-EVZ 6:2, EVZ-Bern 3:0, Bern-EVZ 6:2, EVZ-Bern 5:2, Bern-EVZ 0:1. Before that, the SCB won the championship titles 15 and 16 with the final victories against the EVZ (4:1 and 4:2). Due to these and earlier times, the Bernese are still clearly in the lead in the playoff record with 8:4 won series.