Another major upset in NLA playoffs as Bern goes down
After the ZSC Lions shocking exit in one quarterfinal, comes this, even bigger upset. Regular season champions SC Bern lost the sixth game of their playoff series with EV Zug on Monday night and are eliminated from the Swiss National League A playoffs. Incredibly, this is the second year in a row Bern has won the regular season crown only to exit in the first round of the playoffs (Fribourg pulled the upset last year). With Davos and Lugano due for a deciding seventh game Thursday, we could conceivably have three lower-seeded teams in the semifinals (third-seeded Kloten Flyers is so far the only favorite to advance. They swept Servette Geneva).
But back to the EVZ-SCB series. The Swiss league does not appear to award MVPs of individual series, so we’re going to do it for them. Our choice here: Corsin Camichel, a 28 year-old Swiss forward who came out of nowhere to net four goals and three assists in the series. When we say “came out of nowhere” this is not literally true of course, though Camichel has only been with Zug since mid-season. But his seven point tally from these six games is equal to his entire output from 27 regular season games with Zug this year. Camichel scored the game-tying goal in Game 5 and the game-winner in Game 2.
Zug face Kloten in the semifinals, with Game 1 scheduled for Saturday night at Kloten’s Schluefweg. Suffice it to say that right now the script has been thrown out on the Swiss hockey postseason. There will be no repeat glory for Champions Hockey League winners ZSC and no triumph for the regular season winners from the nation’s capital. Kloten could conceivably be seen as favorites to get their first championship this decade, though with the way things have been going who knows?
