Eight-time participants EV Zug have managed to open their 2022/23 Champions Hockey League campaign with a five-game win streak for the first time in their CHL tenure. The reigning NL champions have outscored their opponents by two or more goals in four of their past five contests and sit third in the league in Goals For per game with 4.40 and second in Goals Against with 1.40.
Their outstanding offence coupled with a stingy defence have made Zug the team to beat in Group B, but evidence from their last match-up against Olimpija Ljubljana suggests that that task is easier said than done.
"5-on-5 they’ve been a pretty good team and they showed that they’re a good team here tonight."O'Neill gives credit to Zug's Slovenian challengers
Coming off a 6-1 thumping over TPS Turku, Zug qualified for their fifth Playoffs appearance and first since the 2019/20 season. This, of course, had been the aim of the Swiss side since the beginning according to Brian O'Neill, who reiterated, “That was our goal coming into the Group Stage.”
The 34-year-old currently leads the team in points with four goals and five helpers and is tied for third in points league wide. In the match-up against Ljubljana, O’Neill lit the lamp twice, including the game-winner on a breakaway, and has seen his name entered onto the scoresheet on an almost nightly basis in his first CHL participation.
Having yet to play against the Slovenian side, Zug were unsure of what to expect but knew that their hosts were going to be competitive. Ljubljana had suffered their fourth loss in a 4-0 shutout at the hands of Grizzlys Wolfsburg and so were desperate to earn their first points of the competition.
“We knew they were going to be tough,” admitted the American, who went on to point out the Slovenians' solid play at 5-on-5 as an example of what the club brings in terms of its strengths. “I think if you look at some of the games that they’ve played in the CHL, 5-on-5 they’ve been a pretty good team and they showed that they’re a good team here tonight,” he explained.
We've played five solid games so far, we have one left.EV Zug's Brian O'Neill on their performance in the CHL so far
The Swiss took control of the board early with a goal by Dario Simion seven and half minutes into the first period. Olimpija tried to derail any chance Zug would have of increasing their lead, but their efforts failed as O'Neill found the back of the net less than a minute before the first intermission.
While the hosts would manage to cut into Zug's lead near the midway mark of the third thanks to Tadej Čimžar's tally, they still found themselves down by two and eventually fell short of completing the comeback.
Already with four victories under their belt, defeating Olimpija for their fifth win was just one more thing to celebrate for O'Neill as Zug are now, “one step closer to reaching that goal” which is “to win the Champions Hockey League.”