Act I of the quarter-final of the playoffs between Genève-Servette and Lausanne turned to the advantage of the former. At Vernets, the Genevans won by the smallest of margins (1-0). Act II Monday from 8 p.m. in Lausanne.
A good part of the spectators present in the ice rink must have wondered if they were going to have something to drink before attacking overtime. And then Roger Karrer passed the puck to Jesse Puljujärvi who benefited from a good screen from Markus Granlund to finally surprise Kevin Pasche 1’16 from the final siren.
And even if it took a long time to emerge, this Geneva victory is deserved. Lausanne had, however, done fairly well for this act I. In addition to a once again modified alignment, Geoff Ward had decided to do without the services of his Finnish defender Sami Niku. The Canadian coach therefore chose to put five imported attackers on the ice. The absence of Niku did not result in huge deficiencies in the Vaudois rearguard.
Disciplined Genevans
This further allowed Ward to create four offensive lines capable of bringing danger and keeping the puck in the offensive zone. And also to dilute the talent to try to counter the Finnish first line of the Eagles. The latter were also extremely disciplined in offering no power play to the Lions.
In the garnet ranks, Ville Peltonen was able to count on the return of Tim Bozon, injured since the end of January. It will be interesting to see the appearance of Monday’s derby at Malley, because this LHC has arguments. Will Ward trust Pasche again in net or will he hand over the keys to Connor Hughes?
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ats/pc