Swiss beat NHL team in Victoria Cup upset
The ZSC Lions hockey team mounted a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks in Zurich's Hallenstadion to win the Victoria Cup on Tuesday night.
It was the first time in the history of professional Swiss hockey that a Swiss team has beaten a club from the National Hockey League (NHL) for the title.
The Victoria Cup is a yearly match up between top European teams and NHL challengers that began in 1975. This year’s contest was the first time that ZSC has played an NHL team.
The game started out in favour of the Chicago players after defenceman Cam Barker scored in the seventh minute of the first period on an assist by Patrick Sharp.
Six minutes later Zurich equalised on a shot from Patrik Bärtschi. The Lions narrowly missed pulling ahead again after a shot slammed into the post. A rush by Zurich’s Cyrill Buehler put ZSC in the lead shortly after.
“They are certainly stronger than we are individually,” Bärtschi said. “But we have made up for that with fighting and team spirit.”
The match was one of the biggest upsets since the Swiss national team beat Canada 2-0 during the Olympic games in Turin in 2006.
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