The Lions beat Ajoie at the end of the game with twists and turns and thanks to a goal from Damien Riat scored 35 seconds from time (5-4).
© Pascal Muller/freshfocus
The Lausanne residents wore a vintage jersey on Sunday for their centenary match.
The LHC celebrated its hundredth anniversary to the day with a victory against Ajoie on Sunday afternoon at the Vaudoise arena (5-4). But it was complicated for the Lions, facing an HCA who gave them a hard time from start to finish.
Printing the right intensity in both directions of the game, Gary Sheehan’s men made a success of their start to the match. They endangered the opposing rearguard on several occasions and took advantage of a situation of double numerical superiority (Douay and Frolik penalized) to open the scoring through Thibault Frossard (18th 0-1). The striker at No 12 had not scored since November 6 (16 silent matches).
Opposite, Lausanne – equipped with a very nice vintage jersey – took time to manage to assume its status as favorite and to raise the tone. In fact, it took a magnificent opening from Lukas Frick (one more) and a perfect finish from Cody Almond (27th 1-1) to launch him into the game.
Behind, John Fust’s band finally dictated the pace. But she first came up against a solid opposing organization and an impeccable Tim Wolf in front of his cage, 5 against 5 as in special situations. Until this absence from the start of the third third, when Jiri Sekac cracked down (41st 2-1).
The beginning of the end for Ajoie, some might have thought. Still, the Jurassians found a way to equalize less than a minute later (42nd Huber 2-2), before even taking the lead in the 44th, taking advantage of their second situation of double numerical superiority after -noon (Asselin 2-3; Jäger and Glauser penalized).
Crazy endgame
But Lions also have resources. They proved it by going for both the 3-3 (52nd Riat) and the 4-4 (58th Sekac, his 6th goal in 4 matches), behind a new added achievement (57th Joggi 3-4) and during a completely crazy end to the match, marked by the victorious success of Damien Riat 35 seconds from the end (5-4).
With this fifth success of the year (in 6 outings), Lausanne is even closer to the top 6, synonymous with direct qualification for the quarter-finals of the play-offs. While the HCA recorded a 15th consecutive defeat in the National League on Sunday, thus equaling a negative record previously held by La Chaux-de-Fonds (2000-2001) and the LHC (1995-1996).