An overtime goal from Roman Wick put ZSC Lions Zurich into the Quarter-Finals after 120 minutes decided nothing against Swiss opponents HC Lugano. Read more in Gamecentre. 

by Derek O'Brien

In the Round of 16 match-up featuring two Swiss clubs, it is ZSC Lions Zurich that is heading to the Quarter-Finals, thanks to a power-play overtime goal from Top Scorer Roman Wick. Severin Blindenbacher assisted on the winner and had three points in the game.

Starting the game down by a goal on aggregate, Zurich came roaring out of the gate and Patrick Thoresen nearly opened the scoring when he rang a shot of the goalpost in the third minute, but it was Lugano that opened the scoring a couple of minutes later against the run of play – Ryan Gardner chipped the puck into the Zurich zone and Sebastien Reuille used his speed to beat everybody to it and blasted a slapper under Lukas Flueler's glove.

Undaunted, the Lions went back on the attack and finally solved Elvis Merzlikins around the 15-minute mark, when they scored twice in 47 seconds. First Reto Shaeppi scored on a rebound, and then Blindenbacher sent a perfect wrist shot over Merzlikins's glove to level the aggregate score. 

“I think we played a good solid game all throughout,” said ZSC coach Hans Wallson. “We started well but gave up the first goal. Then we killed off a couple penalties and had good energy all game.”

Zurich's momentum continued into the second period, and halfway through they went ahead on aggregate when Thoresen connected. Lugano pulled back even seven minutes later, however, when Linus Klasen teed up a slapper from the point and blew it past Flueler with the teams skating 4-on-4.

After two periods of dominance from Zurich – the shots were 38-13 – the pace slowed down significantly in the third period, as no one wanted to make the mistake to put his team out of the competition. However, the home side started to put the pressure back on late in the period. With under four minutes to go, Blindenbacher rang a shot from the top of the circle off the outside of the post. They kept the pressure up and a big moment came with 43 seconds to play, when Lugano's Tony Martensson was sent off for hooking.

Although they didn't score for the rest of regulation time, Zurich's power play carried into overtime, where their advantage became 4-on-3. They went to the attack right away and it took just 1:07 to end it, with Wick unleashing a big slapper from the top of the circle that beat Merzlikins high to the stick side. 

“It's a team victory, everybody worked hard when it comes to the small things like blocking shots, killing penalties, so I'm really glad we found a way to win,” Wallson evaluated. 

The Zurich coach is well familiar with his team's next CHL opponents – the Vaxjo Lakers – from his time coaching in the SHL. “It's going to be interesting to go back to Sweden. It's the Quarter-Finals so any team you face is going to be good, but anything can happen. It's going to be fun.”