The championship is still long, but HC La Chaux-de-Fonds sent a small additional dig on Tuesday to its best enemy in the Swiss League, Basel. Two days after beating the Rhinelanders in a boiling Mélèzes ice rink, Louis Matte’s players widened the gap a little further, beating GCK Lions 2-0, and are five points ahead of second place, now occupied by Thurgau. Basel finds itself third, a small point behind, beaten by the surprising newly promoted Coire with a score of 4-2.
HCC in “control” mode
After an intense and fast match on Sunday, the scenario was quite different this Tuesday. “We wanted the three points and we chose to do it in “control” mode. Yes, it wasn’t sexy, yes it wasn’t pretty to see, but we have one more victory and we are still first in the standings,” analyzed the versatile HCC player Jaison Dubois.
The Bees quickly took the right turn in this part. On their first power play of the evening, they found the opening at the heart of the best boxplay in the league by Evgenï Chiriaev on a serve from Loic In-Albon, after just over 5 minutes of play. The second success was the work of David Eugster, who perfectly deflected a delivery from Sandis Smons from the blue line midway through the match. Goalkeeper Viktor Östlund, named best player by the public, signed his fourth shutout of the season, the second against the Zurich team.
Olden and Huguenin absent
The Chaux-de-Fonniers came together to fill the absences of attacker Sondre Olden and defender Anthony Huguenin. The Norwegian suffers from a thigh injury after receiving a violent shot from Huguenin on the thigh on Sunday against Basel. As for Vallonnier, he was spared to treat his upper body injury.
The HCC can now turn its gaze towards Sierre which it faces on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. in the Graben cauldron. Mario Pouliot’s men remain the only team that is still resisting the leader Chaux-de-Fonier this season. /lre
Swiss
