After the annoying 3-2 defeat against EHC Kloten on Thursday night, the EVZ had to relinquish home ice with one round of the qualifiers remaining, as HC Davos turned around a 1-0 and 1-2 deficit at home against the ZSC Lions in the final minutes of the game. The Zug team now only has the chance to regain home ice in the playoff quarter-finals with a little help. One thing is clear: EVZ must win against Lausanne on Saturday. At the same time, SCB must lose against Geneva or HCD against Rapperswil. While Genève-Servette HC and the Rapperswil-Jona Lakers are still desperately in need of points in the battle for play-in qualification, Lausanne HC was already certain of qualification after 50 rounds.

Tied on points with Davos, Zug remain behind the Grisons team. The situation would be different for Bern – if both teams have 88 points after 52 games, the EVZ would be placed ahead of the Mutzen. The starting position ahead of the last game is therefore open: EVZ could finish the regular season in 5th, 4th and with a lot of shooting help even in 3rd place. This also leaves open whether the quarter-final opponent will be Bern, Davos, Fribourg or Kloten, and whether EVZ will start the playoffs on March 14 with a home or away game.

Even though Lausanne is theoretically no longer dependent on points and lost 2-0 at home to up-and-coming Fribourg on Tuesday, the Vaud team is always dangerous. In their previous duels in Lausanne, EVZ have lost twice – 3:6 in October and 1:2 after overtime at the beginning of January. At home, however, the Zug team came away with a 6-2 win thanks to a strong middle third. Fredrik Olofsson and Grégory Hofmann scored twice in the game in mid-November. The latter scored for the third time in a row in Kloten and is now tied with Lino Martschini with 18 goals for the season.