Lugano wound Lions and raise hopes

Lugano have dashed Zurich Lions' hopes of an easy finish to the ice hockey play-off final series. In Thursday's knife edge game, amid an electric atmosphere on and off the ice, the Ticinese opened the scoring in the fourteenth minute, thanks to Fedulov.

Lugano have dashed Zurich Lions’ hopes of an easy finish to the ice-hockey play-off final series. In Thursday’s knife edge game, amid an electric atmosphere on and off the ice, the Ticinese opened the scoring in the fourteenth minute, thanks to Fedulov.

The Lions pulled back in the fifteenth, with a goal from Ivankovic, and added insult to injury when Hodgson made it 1-2 in the seventeenth.

In the second period, Lugano’s French star Bozon opened the scoring in the game’s twenty-first minute, bringing the two sides level. Lions’ Jaks helped the Zurich side take the upper hand again in the twenty-seventh, but Bozon replied two minutes later.

The teams were level pegging at 3-3 as they entered the third period, and were so evenly matched that neither could clinch the game. After the goal-free third, the game went to extra time, and sudden death.

In keeping with his roots, Bozon dropped the guillotine on Zurich in the sixty-third, minutes after the extra time face-off.

Lugano’s 4-3 win means the series stands at 2-3. The Ticinese took the first game, but then lost three in a row to the Lions.

The two sides meet again on Saturday, when the tension-levels will be higher still – and that’s just for the fans. A win for the Lions will make them champions for the first time since 1961; if Lugano manage another performance of Thursday’s quality, and square the play-offs, then they have a shot of holding onto the title for another year.


by Jonathan Fowler