CHL Season Review 2018/19

SWISS SORROW – FROM FOUR TO ZERO REGIONAL DIVERSITY Switzerland had four participants in the 2018/19 CHL season – ZSC Lions Zurich, HC Lugano, SC Bern and EV Zug. The sea- son started promisingly, as all four ad- vanced from the Group Stage with relative ease and Switzerland entered the Round of 16 with the most teams of all countries. EV Zug faired especially well in the Group Stage – with 16 points from 5 wins and a sole overtime loss, they recorded the second highest amount of points of all teams. But the Round of 16 proved to be tough. Zug car- ried their great form into the first match of the Playoffs and beat Red Bull Munich. Both Lugano and Zurich settled for draws on home ice, keeping their hunger for the return games, with only Bern losing to a strong Malmö Redhawks side. The return games were close and full of tension right up to the final whistle. HC Lugano and the ZSC Lions both led at the end of the second period but goals late into the final third resulted in both teams dropping out. With similar results from EV Zug, who lost their aggregate lead, and SC Bern, who were unable to overcome the Redhawks, Switzerland went from four participants in the CHL to zero in the space of one single night. Playoffs The Round of 16 saw an interesting line up of countries in the 2018/19 season of the CHL, as for the first time ever, there were 9 of them! Teams from traditional partici- pants Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria were joined by French team, the Rouen Dragons, who stunned Europe by miraculously beating the THOMAS SABO Ice Tigers in an all-or- nothing tie to qualify from Group F. In doing so they became the first French team to reach the Round of 16 in the competition’s history. It was a similar story for HC Bolzano, who qualified by finishing second in Group C – also a first for club and country. Norwegian club Storhamar Hamar also made a surprise appearance, as they repeated their Round of 16 participation from the 2015/16 season. Despite all the teams dropping out at this stage of the competition, this season, more than ever before, proved just how diverse the teams in the CHL are and that everybody really does have chance of winning.