HC Ajoie loses its home game against Ambri-Piotta 3:4 after overtime after leading 3:0. These are the facts of Sunday's games.
05.01.2025, 19:07
05.01.2025, 19:32
SDA
The results from Sunday evening
- ZSC Lions - Lausanne 1:2 (1:0, 0:1, 0:1)
- Ajoie - Ambri-Piotta 3:4 (3:1, 0:1, 0:1, 0:1) n.V.
- Genève-Servette - SCL Tigers 3:2 (0:0, 3:1, 0:1)
- Lugano - Fribourg-Gottéron 1:5 (0:2, 0:0, 1:3)
Despite the defeat against Ambri-Piotta on Sunday: confidence in Ajoie is higher again. And in the Jura, they are mourning the fact that they didn't make their first coaching change sooner. Because since first Julien Vauclair and then Greg Ireland took over in Ajoie, things have been going much better for the Jura.
The 19 rounds since then have resulted in almost as many victories (9) as defeats (10). If only it hadn't been for that false start to the season under Christian Wohlwend: Because Ajoie won only one of their first 14 games before Wohlwend was fired, the Ajoulots are still twelve points behind Lugano (13th) and 13 points behind Ambri-Piotta (12th). With the cadence of the last 19 rounds, Ajoie would be in the middle of the table - around 8th place.
In the sold-out arena in Pruntrut, Ajoie took a 3-0 lead with a furious start in the first 16 minutes. Ambri then changed the goalkeeper: Gilles Senn came in for Janne Juvonen and didn't allow another goal in the remaining 46 minutes (22 saves). Tim Muggli and William Hedlund brought Ambri back to 2:3. Philippe Maillet equalized in the 59th minute (without a goalkeeper) to make it 3:3. And Dominik Kubalik scored Ambri's winner after 86 seconds of overtime.
Gottéron on a high
HC Fribourg-Gottéron's run of form under Lars Leuenberger continued in Lugano. Fribourg, already winners of the Spengler Cup in the week before the end of the year, also defeated HC Lugano two days after their home win over the ZSC Lions, and they did so away from home with an extremely convincing 5-1 victory. Julien Sprunger put Gottéron on the road to victory with two goals in the first eight minutes. Lucas Wallmark also contributed two goals (two assists).
Servette's revenge
Servette defeated the SCL Tigers 3-2. 20 hours earlier, the two teams had faced each other in Emmental, with the Langnau team prevailing 3-0 on Saturday. Both teams changed goalkeepers for the second game: Robert Mayer saved 16 shots, Luca Boltshauser even saved 27 for Langnau. On Saturday, Langnau had scored three times in the final period. In the second game, Geneva scored three goals within 13 minutes in the second period through Alessio Bertaggia, Teemu Hartikainen and Theodor Lennström. Langnau's goal by Sean Malone 40 seconds before the end to make it 2:3 came too late.
Match telegrams:
Ajoie - Ambri-Piotta 3:4 (3:1, 0:1, 0:1, 0:1) n.V.
Pruntrut. - 5178 spectators (sold out). - Referees Mollard/Fonselius, Stalder/Humair. - Goals: 1. (0:37) Devos (Hazen) 1:0. 8. Nättinen (Bellemare/powerplay goal) 2:0. 16. Devos 3:0. 18. Muggli (Isacco Dotti) 3:1. 38. Hedlund (Muggli) 3:2. 59. Maillet (DiDomenico) 3:3 (no goalkeeper). 62nd Kubalik 3:4 - Penalties: 5 times 2 minutes each. - PostFinance top scorers: Nättinen; Kubalik.
Ajoie: Conz; Honka, Fey; Nussbaumer, Fischer; Minder, Maurer; Thiry, Pilet; Palve, Bellemare, Nättinen; Hazen, Devos, Pedretti; Robin, Garessus, Bozon; Sopa, Romanenghi, Veckaktins.
Ambri-Piotta: Juvonen (16. Senn); Heed, Pezzullo; Wüthrich, Virtanen; Zgraggen, Terraneo; Isacco Dotti; DiDomenico, Maillet, Kubalik; Bürgler, Kostner, De Luca; Grassi, Heim, Müller; Muggli, Landry, Hedlund; Zwerger.
Remarks: Ajoie without Frossard, Patenaude, Rundqvist, Scheidegger, Schmutz, Turkulainen (all injured) and Brennan (supernumerary foreigner), Ambri-Piotta without Douay (injured) and Curran (supernumerary foreigner). Ambri-Piotta without a goalkeeper from 57:55 to 58:11.
Genève-Servette - SCL Tigers 3:2 (0:0, 3:1, 0:1)
6283 spectators. - SR Wiegand/Kaukokari, Altmann/Gnemmi. - Goals: 25th Bertaggia (Pouliot) 1:0. 31st (30:01) Hartikainen 2:0. 31st (30:32) Pesonen (Saarijärvi, Riikola) 2:1. 38th Lennström 3:1. 60th (59:20) Mäenalanen (power play goal) 3:2 (without goalkeeper). - Penalties: 5 times 2 minutes against Genève-Servette, 4 times 2 minutes against SCL Tigers. - PostFinance top scorers: Manninen; Pesonen.
Genève-Servette: Mayer; Vatanen, Le Coultre; Berni, Chanton; Lennström, Karrer; Jacquemet; Hartikainen, Manninen, Granlund; Praplan, Jooris, Timaschow; Bertaggia, Pouliot, Miranda; Völlmin, Cavalleri, Loosli; Imesch.
SCL Tigers: Boltshauser; Zanetti, Riikola; Saarijärvi, Meier; Guggenheim, Paschoud; Cadonau; Mäenalanen, Malone, Saarela; Julian Schmutz, Flavio Schmutz, Pesonen; Fahrni, Canova, Allenspach; Berger, Salzgeber, Petrini; Lapinskis.
Remarks: Genève-Servette without Descloux, Hischier, Richard (all injured) and Raanta (extra foreigner), SCL Tigers without Baltisberger, Erni (both injured), Kristof and Rohrbach (both sick). SCL Tigers without goalkeeper from 55:24.
Lugano - Fribourg-Gottéron 1:5 (0:2, 0:0, 1:3)
5614 spectators. - SR Hürlimann/Hungerbühler, Huguet/Steenstra. - Goals: 3. Sprunger (Sutter, De la Rose) 0:1. 8. Sprunger (Dufner) 0:2. 46. Lilja (Wallmark, Gunderson/powerplay goal) 0:3. 49. Nicolet (Streule) 0:4. 51. Sörensen (Vey, Wallmark/powerplay goal) 0:5. 54. Cormier (Aebischer, Dahlström) 1:5. - Penalties: 3 times 2 minutes against Lugano, 2 times 2 minutes against Fribourg-Gottéron. - PostFinance top scorers: Joly; Wallmark.
Lugano: Schlegel; Pulli, Alatalo; Aebischer, Dahlström; Jesper Peltonen, Guerra; Meile; Fazzini, Arcobello, Carr; Joly, Thürkauf, Sekac; Aleksi Peltonen, Canonica, Marco Müller; Cormier, Verboon, Patry; Zanetti.
Fribourg-Gottéron: Berra; Gunderson, Jecker; Sutter, Streule; Diaz, Dufner; Rathgeb; Nicolet, Wallmark, Sörensen; Bertschy, Vey, Lilja; Sprunger, De la Rose, Marchon; Mottet, Walser, Gerber; Etter.
Remarks: Lugano without Morini, Mirco Müller, Zohorna, van Pottelberghe (all injured) and Huska (supernumerary foreigner), Fribourg-Gottéron without Schmid (injured) and Borgman (supernumerary foreigner).
