Bears of Bern take ice hockey title

Bern’s ice hockey club have won this season’s championship, beating Geneva Servette 4-1 in the seventh and deciding match of the play-offs.

It is the 12th time that Bern have won the title in the club’s history but the first time they achieved this at home since the play-off series was introduced in 1986. The two teams had gone into Saturday’s match 3-3 in the series.

The match, played in front of a sell-out crowd of 17,000 began badly for the home team, which went behind after just 80 seconds.

But the “bears” of Bern, the clear favourites, kept their nerves and were two up at the end of the first period. They scored in each of the two remaining periods to take victory (2-1, 1-0, 1-0).

Dominant in the regular season, Bern reached the play-off final in style, defeating Lugano 4-0 and Kloten 4-0 along the way. At one stage in the finals, Bern had led 3-1 against Geneva, which were seeking their first championship title.

It’s the third time that Bern coach Larry Huras has won the championship. He’d previously led ZSC Lions and Lugano to victory.

About 20,000 Bern fans are reported to have celebrated the victory late into the night and early morning.

In another deciding match, Biel beat Lausanne 4-3 to avoid relegation and remain in the top league.

swissinfo.ch and agencies