Lions get swept; Zurich bounced from playoffs by Fribourg
A major (and unexpected, at least from us) upset in the first round of the 2009 Swiss National League A playoffs: second-seed and defending champion ZSC Lions were swept by seventh-seeded Fribourg-Gotteron. These are the same ZSC Lions who won the inaugural edition of the Champions Hockey League in January, which made them (at least until this) the defacto best ice hockey club in Europe.
The end came Thursday night in Fribourg and was largely the work of one man: Julien Sprunger, a 2004 NHL Entry Draft pick of the Minnesota Wild, who scored all three goals, including the match-winner in overtime. If Switzerland gave out MVP awards for individual series, Sprunger would be the logical candidate: Besides last night’s hat trick, the 23-year old right wing scored twice in Game 2 and had the game-winning assist in Game 1. Hockeysfuture.com has a comprehensive summary of Sprunger’s qualifications.
Not having seen any of the games, it is difficult for us to put a finger on the cause of this. The obvious one is hangover/overconfidence stemming from the aforementioned CHL triumph. If so, Zurich’s head coach Sean Simpson has to be held at least partially responsible. Especially because Fribourg pulled a similar upset in last year’s playoffs. As the then-eighth seed they beat top seed SC Bern in the quarterfinals. Judging by score sheet from yesterday’s game, Fribourg may very well have simply wanted this more than Zurich. The French-Swiss club rallied to tie the game less than a minute before the end of regulation. In fact, in the three games that were close (Game 2 was a 3-0 shutout) Fribourg came through in the final minute each time, holding off late surges (and overcoming third period goals) by the Lions. In close games, events like those speak to a more passionate approach to the matter at hand. But again, we didn’t see the games so this is just speculation.
