Defenseman Claude-Curdin Paschoud: "As a player, you have to activate your short-term memory in the playoffs"
Image: Keystone
Long faces on goalie Luca Boltshauser and defenseman Joel Salzgeber after the 3:3 equalizer right before the end
Image: Keystone
"As a coach, I've never experienced two (sustainable) goals against like that in the same playoff game," said Langnau coach Thierry Paterlini
Image: Keystone
Paterlini: "But as a coach, you don't have to talk about the goals against, you talk about how Boltshauser came back in the fourth period"
Image: Keystone
One thing is clear: The SCL Tigers travel to Lausanne again on Monday with a lot of new self-confidence
Image: Keystone
Defenseman Claude-Curdin Paschoud: "As a player, you have to activate your short-term memory in the playoffs"
Image: Keystone
Long faces on goalie Luca Boltshauser and defenseman Joel Salzgeber after the 3:3 equalizer right before the end
Image: Keystone
"As a coach, I've never experienced two (sustainable) goals against like that in the same playoff game," said Langnau coach Thierry Paterlini
Image: Keystone
Paterlini: "But as a coach, you don't have to talk about the goals against, you talk about how Boltshauser came back in the fourth period"
Image: Keystone
One thing is clear: The SCL Tigers travel to Lausanne again on Monday with a lot of new self-confidence
Image: Keystone
What a game! The first playoff home game in Langnau in six years was incredibly spectacular. And in the end, the eighth-place team beat the first-place team.
16.03.2025, 06:08
16.03.2025, 08:21
SDA
The SCL Tigers lost all momentum just before overtime. Two "flops" by goalie Luca Boltshauser (31), who was beaten first at 2:2 and then eleven seconds before the end at 3:3 from an impossible angle, allowed Lausanne Hockey Club to force overtime. There, the visitors dominated for the first time. And the mood among the fans didn't bode well either: anyone who is allowed to play the last minute and a half in overtime and then concedes the equalizer, i.e. who misses out on such chances, is unlikely to be able to beat the favourites as a blatant underdog. That was the mood in the sold-out Ilfis-Halle.
"You have to thematize the comeback"
What did Thierry Paterlini say to his players during the break before overtime? What words did he have for the goalie? Paterlini: "There was nothing to say about the goals against. Nobody knows better than Boltshauser himself that he shouldn't concede these goals. The mood in the dressing room was positive. We had an overtime game to win. Everyone knows that in the playoffs a game is only decided when it's finally over. And about 'Boltsi': It's not the goals he conceded that need to be discussed, but how he came back in the fourth period."
Luca Boltshauser stopped 13 shots in overtime alone. He made a total of 45 saves. As in the play-in, Boltshauser emerged as the hero - although his coach Paterlini also said afterwards that "I've never seen two shots like that find their way into the net".
"Were not extremely down"
The players didn't see the equalizer - conceded with less than twelve seconds to go and in overtime - as a shock either. "We weren't that extremely down," said Claude-Curdin Paschoud. "As a player, you know that in the playoffs it's really only over when it's done. And then, luckily for us, the puck fell in for them."
In the playoffs, he says, you have to activate your short-term memory as a player. "You have to think from game to game, even from third to third. Only at the end do you see what comes out."
Can you do that as a player? Can you simply put away refereeing errors like the goal you conceded to make it 2:3 in Game 1 (offside) in Lausanne? "Yes, you can," says Paschoud. "We didn't lose the game in Lausanne on that occasion. We lost the first game because we were run over for 39 minutes. The fact that we still came close to winning on Thursday and have now even won on Saturday boosts our confidence. That's good for all of us!"
Thierry Paterlini is of the same opinion: "We played in Lausanne with only five foreigners (because Juuso Rikkola was missing due to becoming a father), we conceded a goal in the first ten seconds and then had zero chances in the first two periods. Nevertheless, it was still close in Lausanne. We learned from our mistakes in game 2. We were able to shut Lausanne down well in the second game. Now we'll try to do better away from home on Monday than we did last Thursday."
