Ice hockey: after two victories, Bienne stumbles in Zug

HC Bienne, which had smiled at the end of its last two matches in the National League championship (2-1 against Lugano on January 7 and 4-3 against Ambri on Saturday), was not able to surf its positive wave on Sunday in Zug, where he lost 4-1.

A score which does not fully reflect the control over the game of their opponents who often took possession of their defensive territory (40-22 in the statistics of shots on target). But who lacked imagination, patience and, sometimes, lucidity near the net well guarded by Luis Janett.

Quickly trailing 2-0 following successes from Lukas Bengtsson in a break (8th) and Sven Senteler on a rebound poorly controlled by their back bases (13th), the Zealanders had the merit of remobilizing and not breaking down, scenario which could have happened if the hockey players from Central Switzerland had thought about finding shooting angles during the sequences spent on the power play.

Back at 2-1 at the dawn of the middle period (Anthony Greco exploited an error from Leon Muggli in the 24th minute), the HCB gave itself the right to believe in it. But, even if he made a few successful incursions into the Zug zone, he rarely created danger there and sowed doubt under the helmets of his opponents.

The 3-1 awarded to Grégory Hoffmann therefore only rewarded the team which most wanted the three points of victory (55th).

With this unfavorable result, the team coached by Martin Filander remains stuck in the very soft underbelly of the Swiss first division ranking. Tenth with a collection of 49 points in 36 games, it only has a safety cushion on 11th, in this case Genève-Servette.

The Biel residents will bring out their official equipment and jerseys on Wednesday (7:45 p.m.) as they travel to Emmental to challenge the SCL Tigers.

Zug – Biel 4-1 (2-0 0-1 2-0)