HC Lugano suffered Switzerland's first loss in the CHL this season after a 3-1 home loss to Tappara Tampere. Read more in Gamecentre.
Having won in Mannheim, where Tappara Tampere lost in the next game, the HC Lugano played their first CHL game on home ice hoping to go clear at the top of the group.
Things seemed to be going to plan for Lugano early on – just 5:37 on the clock when Dario Burgler opened the scoring for the home side. The scores stayed that way until early in the middle period, when Tappara brought themselves level through Otso Rantakari at 24:57 – a score which stayed through until the period had ended.
“I think it’s our fault we let Tappara come back into the game, they were efficient like we were tonight," Burgler said afterward. "In the second period we had a couple of great chances on the power play but we were unable to convert – maybe that would have changed the game. Saturday we have to play better 5-on-5, we have to create more chances and try to score some dirty goals against this team. From now on every goal is important, this group is very tight.”
In the final period it was Tappara who got the breakthrough and go-ahead goal, taking the lead at 41:00 – Teemu Nurmi's fine pass finding Arttu Ilomaki who fired past Daniel Manzato to put the Finns ahead for the first time in the game. Things got better for the visitors just over six minutes later – Henrik Haapala's initial shot was blocked but he managed to pound on the rebound and wrist the puck past an unsighted Mankato to double his side's lead.
And that was how the game ended, despite an equal shot count of 29 each it was Tappara who took the game by two goals, winning 3-1 to leave a three-way tie in Group C.
Tappara coach Jussi Tapola summed up, “We had a hard start also today, but we were patient and we improved a lot since the game we played in Mannheim, we played wise with the puck, Lugano wanted to play up and down, we had to play together. In the 2nd period we start with the little things winning battles and we received the right energy to win this game. After the two goals scored in the third period we don’t let them come easy and they had really to work hard for one shot and we were controlling the game.”
Lugano coach Doug Shedden was disappointed with his team's performance in their CHL home opener, and was at a loss to explain their lack of fight in the game. "I think Tappara were the hungrier team, they won a lot of battles, and maybe our guys weren't ready to battle tonight. We certainly didn't have our A-game tonight, and I'm disappointed with that. It was our first Champions League home game, and I'm disappointed we weren't ready for it – but give Tappara credit, they worked hard, played a good road game, and were the better team," he said in the post-game interview.