Three days after its non-match against Lugano (2-4 defeat), Lausanne has suffered a second consecutive defeat in the National League on the ice of Kloten. On Tuesday evening, the Vaudois team fell (3-1) to the Aviators, who were far from irresistible after another mediocre performance.
The Lions, with their captain Joël Genazzi back in the lineup, delivered a copy as pale as against the Ticino in the Zurich suburbs, especially on the offensive side. Much too messy with the puck, the Lausanne players struggled to bring danger in front of the goal defended by Ludovic Waeber, back in Switzerland after a year spent scouring the rinks of North America.
And as the team coached by Lauri Marjamäki confirmed why the predictions placed them in the last places of the ranking, the crowd at the SWISS Arena certainly had to struggle to follow this match without falling asleep.
The only highlight of the first period came just before the quarter-hour mark, when Thomas Grégoire (13th, 1-0) opened the scoring in a power play. The former Fribourg player’s first goal in Switzerland, and Kloten’s first success in a power play this season.
Although the LHC tried to come back with better intentions at the start of the second period, the debates did not really take off. And it was the Aviators, with a cold realism, who took a two-length lead at the halfway point of the match thanks to an opportunistic Daniel Audette (31st, 2-0) on the reception of a caviar signed by Miro Aaltonen. After Marco Pedretti (Ajoie) on Friday and Jiri Sekac (Lugano) the next day, the ex-Lions are definitely continuing to hurt their former colours at the start of the season.
As the second break approached and Geoff Ward’s team was still looking for its first real opportunity, Andrea Glauser (38th, 2-1) recovered a puck in the neutral zone and reduced the score with a solitary effort. A success that came out of nowhere, but which did not, however, sustainably revive Lausanne’s actions.
Because Kloten stepped on the accelerator at the start of the final straight, driven by Miro Aaltonen. The Finnish international first hit Kevin Pasche’s post (41st), before shooting the latter with an unstoppable shot on reception, to once again give his team a two-length lead (43rd, 3-1).
After these last two performances to forget, the LHC will have to show a much better face this Friday evening (kick-off at 7:45 p.m.) at the Vaudoise Arena if it intends to bounce back against Bern. And remind everyone that it did not reach the final of the last play-offs by chance.
