Did the brilliant Swiss results in alpine skiing monopolize your weekend? Has the abundance of football made you lose sight of the National League? Then this catch-up is for you. Approximately every two weeks, RTSsport.ch offers you a summary of the news from clubs in Romandie.
ADD: complicated recovery in Porrentruy. The HCA has not won a victory for a month (5-3 to Amber October 28), or 9 defeats in a row, and took only 3 small points out of 15 possible since the international break (defeats on penalties against Rappi and in extension against Lausanne et balls). With 20 goals conceded in 5 matches, the Jurassians are going through a very bad patch at the worst time. Ajoie is indeed 9 points behind Ambri (13th) and 11 behind Lausanne (12th). The Bruntrutains therefore see their hopes of avoiding the series of playouts diminish day by day as we reach mid-season.
Nothing much seems to work in Ajoie anymore, which did not escape Kevin Fey: “Frankly, it weighs on morale. It’s difficult. Only us, players and coaches, can get out of this. That’s why you have to have a good attitude and not start pointing fingers at one or the other. On the ice, we must be one unit and have one goal: to win the next game.“, details the experienced defender. The only small glimmer of hope in the fog of Porrentruy: the Slovak Martin Bakos scored 4 points in the 4 games he played in this fortnight.
BIEL: Welcome to See(rie)land. The EHCB continues to operate in streaks this season with metronomic regularity. The Biennois saw their series of 10 victories come to an end just before the international break, conceding 4 defeats before reviving. Setbacks which can be explained by the absence of several executives, but which also allowed the whole team to question themselves and return to basics, according to Noah Delémont. “We tried games that were too complicated or spectacular, like exiting zones through the center. When all is well, it passes, but there we were in a little hollow. In these cases, you have to know how to be content to put the puck in the neutral zone, to wait for our opponents, to be the first on the pucks and to play hard“, explains the young defenderwho should also gain playing time in the coming weeks due to the Noah Schneeberger injury.
The Seelanders have closed ranks behind with in particular 2 consecutive shutouts for Harri Säteri. The Finnish goalkeeper is now undefeated for 135’35”, an invincibility still in progress despite the setback 3-0 in Davos, since it was Simon Rytz who defended the goals of Biel in Graubünden on Tuesday. Offensively, the EHCB was also able to count during this fortnight on the awakening of Damien Brunner, author of 4 goals in his last 6 outings while he had only scored one before. With the 3rd best attack in the league (3.5 successes per game) and the 5th defense (2.6 goals conceded per game) at mid-season, Biel has established itself as one of the good teams in the National League. His current 2nd place with 5 points ahead of Zurich (which however has 3 games less) confirms this.
FRIBORG: What if the Dragons had finally found the right fuel? After a checkered start to the season, the Fribourgeois have chained 4 consecutive victories since the international break and have regained the top-6 (6th with 2 points ahead of 7th place). Friborg continues to defend effectively (8 goals conceded during this fortnight, i.e. only 1.6 per game), also well helped by a Connor Hughes who maintains his stratospheric level: the goalkeeper has only conceded 4 goals (including 1 in inferiority digital) for 95.7% saves in the 4 games he played.
The difference lies in the management of the match: the Dragons have simply never been behind during this fortnight, except during the last 16 minutes of the defeat 2-0 v Zürich. The performance is all the more impressive when it includes winning 4-3 against Lausanne during which Jeffrey Meier had his first start in the National League. The young goalkeeper on loan from Zurich was only playing his second meeting at this level and did quite well (90.3% saves). Despite the absence of Reto Berra, Friborg can therefore continue to dream of a title this season, the goal confessed by Christian Dubé at the microphone of RTSsport.
GENEVA: “Earthquake” at Vernets! The Eagles have not scored a point in a regular season home game for the first time since Jan Cadieux took over a year ago. Bern managed the feat of bringing back 3 units from its trip to the end of the lake last Friday (victoire 4-1) in a meeting marked by the withdrawal of the shirt of Goran Bezina (see box). This defeat, however, does not seem to have destabilized the Genevans too much, who in turn broke a series of home victories. the next day in Kloten, where the Airmen remained on 7 successes. Another outstanding result of this fortnight for the Servettians: the 6-2 card inflicted on their Biel dolphin as soon as the championship resumed, even if the Garnets have, it is true, benefited from very favorable circumstances (visitor decreased and disputed arbitration decision).
The GSHC therefore continues to dominate the National League in all areas: alone in the lead with 9 points ahead of Biel, best attack (3.8 successes per game), 3rd best defense (2.3 goals conceded per game), best power play (27.4%), best shooting efficiency (12.4%), best scorer in the championship (Valtteri Filppula with 29 points); don’t throw any more, the cup is full. In Geneva, danger can come from anywhere (see box), which may also explain why the Eagles regularly manage to win even when they play average matches. They still conceded their second defeat in 3 games on Tuesday (3-2 against Rapperswil), the second in a row at Les Vernets, proof that they are not totally unplayable either.
LAUSANNE: Recovery will be long at Malley. After the revolution that took place before the international break, the question arose whether a psychological shock was going to take place or not. With 4 wins in 7 matches since the arrival of Geoff Ward when they only had one of the 8 played before the break, there is undeniably the best for the Vaudois. But the balance sheet (11 points collected out of 27 possible) is not yet sufficient to suggest a real recovery. However, the signs are encouraging despite the 12th place in the standings. Lausanne is only 1 point from 10th place occupied by Lugano and 8 units from 6th place Fribourg. Everything is still possible, but you will have to quickly start to put some warm spots before the good car goes away definitively.
Sporting Director of the LHC, John Fust is moreover well aware of the situation: “Obviously we are not happy with our position in the standings. We are not living up to our ambitions. We have the capabilities to do more. It’s also up to the players to take responsibility and increase their level by 10-15%“. The absences of Michael Raffl and Andrea Glauser also weigh heavily, again according to the former Vaud coach: “Glauser and Raffl are our true leaders in the locker room and on the ice. This is not a criticism of other players, but they are the ones who can hold the team together and lead by example“. John Fust also questions his team’s attacking performance.”We have 4 balanced blocks on the paper. But the question I ask myself is which is our first block? We have to find chemistry and a line that can constantly be dangerous“. There is no doubt that the Lausanne sports director is already racking his brains to improve the situation.
Bastien Trottet – @BastienTrottet
All quotes come from the program Sport Première (every Saturday from 7 p.m. on RTS La 1ère).