Fribourg-Gottéron beat bottom-of-the-table Ajoie 5-0 at home and celebrated their fourth win in the last five games.
Jakob Lilja, who joined Fribourg from Ambri-Piotta at the end of October, opened the scoring 41 seconds before the first break, and the hosts scored twice in the second and third periods. Sandro Schmid scored two goals in one game for the second time in the current championship with the 3:0 (37.) and 4:0 (45.). Killian Mottet was able to breathe a sigh of relief in the 57th minute as he scored his first goal of the season.
Because Fribourg goalie Reto Berra was absent due to illness, as he had been on Saturday in Bern, Loic Galley was once again in goal. The 22-year-old, who played from the start for only the fourth time in the National League, recorded his first shutout in Switzerland's top league thanks to 24 saves.
On 28 November, Fribourg were still in second-last place, but now Gottéron are already ninth in the table. Meanwhile, Ajoie, who have been strong at home recently, are still unable to find a recipe for success on foreign ice under new coach Greg Ireland. The team from Jura conceded their twelfth defeat in their 13th away game of the season.
Telegram:
Fribourg-Gottéron - Ajoie 5:0 (1:0, 2:0, 2:0)
9178 spectators. - SR Hebeisen/Dipietro, Huguet/Cattaneo. - Goals: 20th (19:19) Lilja (Vey, Diaz) 1:0. 24th Wallmark 2:0 (penalty). 37. Schmid (Sprunger, Borgman) 3:0. 45. Schmid (Vey, Sprunger) 4:0. 57. Mottet (Lilja, Dufner) 5:0. - Penalties: 3 times 2 minutes against Fribourg-Gottéron, 1 time 2 minutes against Ajoie. - PostFinance top scorers: Wallmark; Turkulainen.
Fribourg-Gottéron: Galley; Diaz, Borgman; Gunderson, Jecker; Sutter, Streule; Rathgeb, Dufner; Bertschy, Wallmark, Marchon; Lilja, De la Rose, Mottet; Sprunger, Vey, Schmid; Nicolet, Walser, Gerber.
Ajoie: Conz; Honka, Nussbaumer; Minder, Fischer; Thiry, Fey; Pilet; Hazen, Devos, Pedretti; Turkulainen, Bellemare, Nättinen; Sopa, Romanenghi, Schmutz; Garessus, Rundqvist, Bozon; Pouilly.
Remarks: Fribourg-Gottéron without Berra (sick) and Sörensen (injured), Ajoie without Maurer (sick), Frossard, Patenaude, Scheidegger (all injured) and Brennan (supernumerary foreigner).