There is currently much to suggest that the ZSC Lions will successfully defend their title. The Zurich team are a force in their own stadium, as Thursday's 5:1 win against Davos once again impressively demonstrates.
05.04.2025, 04:31
05.04.2025, 08:44
SDA
When the ZSC Lions won the predecessor competition to the Champions Hockey League, which has been held again since 2014, in 2009, they subsequently failed to win the playoff quarter-finals, losing 4-0 to Fribourg-Gottéron, scoring just four goals in these four games. The Lions are now well on their way to reaching the final for the third time in a row and successfully defending their championship title - they have a 2:1 lead in the semi-final against Davos.
Captain Patrick Geering, the only player in the team to have already played in 2009, sees the difference in awareness. He described the triumph 16 years ago in the Champions Hockey League as "sensational", this time it was a goal for the season and prepared the team mentally for this scenario. "And we have a lot of experienced players, which certainly helps too," adds Geering.
Anchored in the subconscious
One of Zurich's biggest assets is its strength at home. Thursday's 5:1 win over Davos in the third semi-final game was their 13th win in a row in front of a home crowd in the playoffs, with a goal difference of 50:17. "Maybe some players need to be in the stadium earlier before the match," speculates defenceman Christian Marti in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency and continues: "You want to be good at home, you want to offer the people something so that they like to come and watch and can get into the mood. If you do that well, it's already anchored in your subconscious."
Coach Marco Bayer adds: "It gives you courage when you play at home. It's your living room." That was also evident on Thursday. Jesper Frödén's curious own goal to make it 1:1 (16') briefly knocked the team off its stride - a failed pass by the Swede during a penalty against Davos ended up in the ZSC's orphaned net. However, they quickly recovered. "We were patient and didn't allow ourselves to be provoked," Bayer summed it up. As for the own goal, he says: "I have to be honest and say that it crossed my mind just before I scored because I'd seen it before. And it usually happens when you think something like that."
"95 percent is not enough"
The way the Zurich team deals with such setbacks underlines how solid the team is. Nothing seems to be able to rattle the Lions at the moment. "I don't know if it looks like that from the outside," remarks Marti. "But there are certainly moments when we could perform better. But we know that we have a good squad, just as we know that 95% is not enough. If we go full throttle, we have a good chance of winning, otherwise it will be a difficult evening, no matter who we play."
It is clear that Davos only has a chance against the better-staffed ZSC if it plays at its optimum. All the more so as the Zurich team's overpayment game also works in the decisive championship phase. While the success rate in the power play was only 17.39 percent in qualifying, it currently stands at 30.77 percent in the playoffs and even 38.46 percent in the semi-final after the three overtime goals on Thursday. The HCD can therefore not afford to be as undisciplined as they were in Game 3 - they conceded no fewer than ten two-minute penalties.
The fact that Davos sporting director Jan Alston did not want to give an interview after the game shows how disappointed he was. To be continued on Saturday in Davos.
