With a deserved 3-0 win for SC Bern on Wednesday, EVZ squandered the first match puck for the semi-final qualification and the winner postponed the early end of the season by at least one game. Almost as expected, the series between the fourth and fifth-placed teams in qualifying, separated by just two points, only came down to the seventh and final game. And EVZ has home ice advantage in this game. This is not insignificant, as the hosts, spurred on by their great fans, won the last two playoff games 6:1 and 6:2 in front of their own crowd and gained a lot of confidence in the process. This was only visible away from home in the first game in Bern, but the negative home series is fortunately a thing of the past.

The last decision in a Zug playoff game number 7 is also a thing of the past – but a pleasing one: On May 1, 2022, the EVZ managed a turnaround from 0:3 to 4:3 against the ZSC Lions and became Swiss champions for the third time after 1998 and 2021. The last Game 7 in a quarter-final is also a positive memory: On March 16, 2013, the EVZ beat HC Lugano 4:1, with Reto Suri, scorer of the 3:1 and 4:1 goals, and Lino Martschini already wearing the blue and white kit back then. EVZ lost the subsequent semi-final against SC Bern – that’s right: in the 7th game in the PostFinance Arena!

Dan Tanges released the players on Thursday and advised them to avoid any contact with the ice and people with negative energy. “Above all, we need the mental break,” emphasized the EVZ Head Coach, who had already taken his time-out after 07:20 minutes in Bern on Wednesday. He will also point out to his team in preparation for the absolutely necessary improvement compared to the last appearance in the federal city on his special teams, which have significantly increased in efficiency in the season finale. Both in the power play (33.33%) and in penalty killing (82.35%), the Zug team is in second place in the playoffs behind the ZSC Lions, while the Bernese team (66.67% and 17.65% respectively) is only in seventh place. In the last home game against the SCB, the team from central Switzerland even scored three goals in three overtime opportunities and thus achieved 100% efficiency!

SCB head coach Jussi Tapola used Philip Wüthrich in goal and six foreign players in the last game. For this reason, Daniel Manzato, and not Adam Reideborn, was listed as the backup goalie on the match sheet. The Finn is unlikely to change that in the showdown in Zug. A different attitude is required above all in the minds of the Zug players, who can once again rely on the catching skills of a rock-solid goalkeeper Leonardo Genoni on Wednesday.

Since the 2017-18 season, EVZ has always reached the playoff semi-finals, which kick off on Easter Monday! The possible opponent for the winner between EVZ and SC Bern would be ZSC Lions or Fribourg-Gottéron.