photo: © Berend STETTLER
The ZSC Lions from Zurich have kept the Champions Hockey League title in Switzerland by beating Swedish club Farjestad Karlstad 2-1.
The game was played before a buzzing, sell-out crowd of 12,000 at Swiss Life Arena, which in its third season of operation has now seen the Lions win a National League title and a CHL title. It is scheduled to be the primary venue of the 2026 IIHF World Championship.
While the Lions have a lot of international talent, such as Czech goalie Simon Hrubec, Finnish defenceman Mikko Lehtonen and forwards Juho Lammikko from Finland, Rudolfs Balcers from Latvia, Jesper Froden from Sweden and Vinzenz Rohrer from Austria, the team’s top two scorers in the CHL – Sven Andrighetto and Denis Malgin – are both Swiss.
Andrighetto scored both of Zurich’s goals in this game, and after it was over was also presented with the CHL’s top scorer and MVP awards. He led the CHL with 10 goals, 12 assists, 22 points and a plus-13 rating.
“It feels amazing, especially because we’re at home,” said Zurich-born-and-raised Andrighetto. “We got to play the final and we had the crowd behind us all game long, pushing us. It’s an amazing atmosphere in here and we’re glad to have this moment with our fans.”
The first goal came late in an evenly-played first period. With Zurich applying pressure, the puck was knocked off the stick of Balcers but was lying loose in the slot for Andrighetto to backhand in. The second came off the rush in the 33rd minute, with Malgin and Balcers setting up the one-timer that sailed over Maxime Lagace’s glove on the short side.
“I went into that game like everybody else – we wanted to win this game as a team,” Andrighetto continued. “It happened to be me who scored the goals but on another day it’s somebody else. It’s a whole-team effort so I’m really glad we got the victory tonight.”
Farjestad failed to capitalize on a 5-on-3 late in the second period, but did finally score on its third power play of the game with 8:55 remaining in the game when Per Aslund got a stick on David Tomasek’s centring pass.
In the CHL, a power-play goal doesn’t end a penalty, but Farjestad was unable to beat Hrubec again in the remaining 1:54 of that power play, in the next one, or in the last two minutes with Lagace on the bench for an extra attacker.
“It’s disappointing to go this far and come up with basically nothing, but I think we played a really good team over there,” said Lagace. “Tonight we really fought hard. We were in the game – it could have gone both ways and tonight it went their way.”
Along with Andrighetto, Lagace was one of the five nominees for the CHL MVP award. Farjestad teammate Oskar Steen, who tied Malgin for second in points with 18, was also nominated, as were Michael Spacek of Sparta Prague and goaltender Antti Raanta of Geneve-Servette, who were both semi-finalists.
Hrubec, who was the CHL MVP in 2017/18 when he played for Czech club Ocelari Trinec, dedicated this title win to his uncle, who passed away on the morning of the final.
“I’m really proud of my team,” said Zurich coach Marco Bayer. “It was a tough game, we expected a tight game, and I’m really happy to win this title here in front of our fans. This is an unbelievable feeling.”
Bayer took over as head coach of the team in late December after the sudden resignation of Marc Crawford for mental health reasons.
“That’s another story, yeah?” Bayer said about the success he’s had since taking the reigns of the Lions. “The two games in the semi-finals against Geneva and now here tonight and I’ve already got a title – that’s great for me too.”
Swiss hockey has shone in the past year, as Geneve-Servette won last year’s CHL title, the Swiss national team won silver at the IIHF World Championship in Prague, and now Zurich has kept the CHL trophy in Switzerland with this victory.
For ZSC, it’s the club’s second European club championship after it won the one-and-only season of the original Champions Hockey League in 2008/09. The only remaining player from that team is 35-year-old defender Patrick Geering, who’s now the team captain.
“When you get older, you can’t remember that much from 15, 16 years ago,” Geering smiled. “It’s nice to have a refreshing memory.”
The two finalists were the top two teams in the CHL regular season. Farjestad took 17 of 18 possible points and won all six games – five in regulation time and once in overtime. In the playoffs, Farjestad edged 2022/23 CHL champion Tappara Tampere from Finland, Red Bull Salzburg from Austria and Sparta Prague from Czechia.
Zurich finished with 14 points with four regulation wins, an overtime win and an overtime loss. The Lions beat a pair of German clubs – the Straubing Tigers and Eisbaren Berlin – before knocking off National League rival and defending CHL champion Geneve-Servette in the semi-finals.
In addition to teams from Europe’s big hockey countries, a couple of challenger leagues saw their best-ever finishes this season. The Sheffield Steelers from Great Britain’s EIHL won four of six regular-season games and finished 10th, but were just one point out of fourth place in a very tight race. And Unia Oswiecim from the Polish Hockey League won twice and took two other games to overtime, just missing the playoffs on a tiebreaker.
The 101 games played in the CHL’s 10th anniversary season saw an average of 4,194 fans in attendance, shattering the previous record of 3,475 set last season.
The game was played before a buzzing, sell-out crowd of 12,000 at Swiss Life Arena, which in its third season of operation has now seen the Lions win a National League title and a CHL title. It is scheduled to be the primary venue of the 2026 IIHF World Championship.
While the Lions have a lot of international talent, such as Czech goalie Simon Hrubec, Finnish defenceman Mikko Lehtonen and forwards Juho Lammikko from Finland, Rudolfs Balcers from Latvia, Jesper Froden from Sweden and Vinzenz Rohrer from Austria, the team’s top two scorers in the CHL – Sven Andrighetto and Denis Malgin – are both Swiss.
Andrighetto scored both of Zurich’s goals in this game, and after it was over was also presented with the CHL’s top scorer and MVP awards. He led the CHL with 10 goals, 12 assists, 22 points and a plus-13 rating.
“It feels amazing, especially because we’re at home,” said Zurich-born-and-raised Andrighetto. “We got to play the final and we had the crowd behind us all game long, pushing us. It’s an amazing atmosphere in here and we’re glad to have this moment with our fans.”
The first goal came late in an evenly-played first period. With Zurich applying pressure, the puck was knocked off the stick of Balcers but was lying loose in the slot for Andrighetto to backhand in. The second came off the rush in the 33rd minute, with Malgin and Balcers setting up the one-timer that sailed over Maxime Lagace’s glove on the short side.
“I went into that game like everybody else – we wanted to win this game as a team,” Andrighetto continued. “It happened to be me who scored the goals but on another day it’s somebody else. It’s a whole-team effort so I’m really glad we got the victory tonight.”
Farjestad failed to capitalize on a 5-on-3 late in the second period, but did finally score on its third power play of the game with 8:55 remaining in the game when Per Aslund got a stick on David Tomasek’s centring pass.
In the CHL, a power-play goal doesn’t end a penalty, but Farjestad was unable to beat Hrubec again in the remaining 1:54 of that power play, in the next one, or in the last two minutes with Lagace on the bench for an extra attacker.
“It’s disappointing to go this far and come up with basically nothing, but I think we played a really good team over there,” said Lagace. “Tonight we really fought hard. We were in the game – it could have gone both ways and tonight it went their way.”
Along with Andrighetto, Lagace was one of the five nominees for the CHL MVP award. Farjestad teammate Oskar Steen, who tied Malgin for second in points with 18, was also nominated, as were Michael Spacek of Sparta Prague and goaltender Antti Raanta of Geneve-Servette, who were both semi-finalists.
Hrubec, who was the CHL MVP in 2017/18 when he played for Czech club Ocelari Trinec, dedicated this title win to his uncle, who passed away on the morning of the final.
“I’m really proud of my team,” said Zurich coach Marco Bayer. “It was a tough game, we expected a tight game, and I’m really happy to win this title here in front of our fans. This is an unbelievable feeling.”
Bayer took over as head coach of the team in late December after the sudden resignation of Marc Crawford for mental health reasons.
“That’s another story, yeah?” Bayer said about the success he’s had since taking the reigns of the Lions. “The two games in the semi-finals against Geneva and now here tonight and I’ve already got a title – that’s great for me too.”
Swiss hockey has shone in the past year, as Geneve-Servette won last year’s CHL title, the Swiss national team won silver at the IIHF World Championship in Prague, and now Zurich has kept the CHL trophy in Switzerland with this victory.
For ZSC, it’s the club’s second European club championship after it won the one-and-only season of the original Champions Hockey League in 2008/09. The only remaining player from that team is 35-year-old defender Patrick Geering, who’s now the team captain.
“When you get older, you can’t remember that much from 15, 16 years ago,” Geering smiled. “It’s nice to have a refreshing memory.”
The two finalists were the top two teams in the CHL regular season. Farjestad took 17 of 18 possible points and won all six games – five in regulation time and once in overtime. In the playoffs, Farjestad edged 2022/23 CHL champion Tappara Tampere from Finland, Red Bull Salzburg from Austria and Sparta Prague from Czechia.
Zurich finished with 14 points with four regulation wins, an overtime win and an overtime loss. The Lions beat a pair of German clubs – the Straubing Tigers and Eisbaren Berlin – before knocking off National League rival and defending CHL champion Geneve-Servette in the semi-finals.
In addition to teams from Europe’s big hockey countries, a couple of challenger leagues saw their best-ever finishes this season. The Sheffield Steelers from Great Britain’s EIHL won four of six regular-season games and finished 10th, but were just one point out of fourth place in a very tight race. And Unia Oswiecim from the Polish Hockey League won twice and took two other games to overtime, just missing the playoffs on a tiebreaker.
The 101 games played in the CHL’s 10th anniversary season saw an average of 4,194 fans in attendance, shattering the previous record of 3,475 set last season.