The Schlittschuhclub Bern achieves the expected must-win against bottom team Ajoie with 6:3.
Waltteri Merelä and Dominik Kahun gave the SCB a 2-0 lead in the first period. In the second period, the team from Jura came back to within one goal twice, but Joel Vermin quickly calmed Bern's nerves with very similar goals at 3:1 and 4:2. And Bern's Alain Graf (19) scored his first goal in the National League.
Although Ajoie traveled to the capital with the reference of five wins from the last eight rounds, they were unable to improve their poor away record (only 3 points from 11 games).
Bern - Ajoie 6:3 (2:0, 3:2, 1:1)
14'580 spectators (season minus record). - SR Ruprecht/Kaukokari, Meusy/Bürgy. - Goals: 14. Merelä (Ejdsell, Kahun) 1:0. 20. (19:42) Kahun (Klok, Loeffel) 2:0. 21. (20:23) Bellemare (Nättinen, Sopa) 2:1. 25. Vermin (Kindschi, Sablatnig) 3:1. 29. Nättinen (Bellemare, Honka/powerplay goal) 3:2. 33. Vermin (Scherwey, Merelä) 4:2. 36. Graf (Klok) 5:2. 48. Bellemare (Honka, Nättinen) 5:3. 60. (59:59) Untersander 6:3 (into the empty net). - Penalties: 3 times 2 minutes each. - PostFinance top scorers: Ejdsell; Turkulainen.
Bern: Reideborn; Untersander, Nemeth; Loeffel, Klok; Vermin, Kindschi; Füllemann; Kahun, Merelä, Ejdsell; Lehmann, Baumgartner, Scherwey; Sablatnig, Bader, Marchon; Schild, Graf, Simon Moser; Levin Moser.
Ajoie: Ciaccio (41. Conz); Honka, Maurer; Nussbaumer, Fey; Minder, Fischer; Thiry, Pilet; Hazen, Devos, Turkulainen; Sopa, Bellemare, Nättinen; Pedretti, Romanenghi, Veckaktins; Robin, Garessus, Schmutz.
Remarks: Bern without Kreis, Lindholm (both injured), Ritzmann (sick) and Czarnik (suspended), Ajoie without Bozon, Frossard, Patenaude, Rundqvist (all injured) and Brennan (supernumerary foreigner). Ajoie without goalkeeper from 57:15.
Ranking:
1. Davos 24/47. 2. ZSC Lions 22/46. 3. Lausanne 24/45. 4. Bern 25/42. 5. Zug 24/41. 6. Kloten 24/38. 7. Biel 24/37. 8. Rapperswil-Jona Lakers 24/31. 9. Ambri-Piotta 23/30. 10. Genève-Servette 21/29. 11. SCL Tigers 22/29. 12. Lugano 22/28. 13. Fribourg-Gottéron 24/28. 14. Ajoie 23/18.
SDA
