As far as Champions Hockey League debuts go, you couldn’t really hope for more than what Swiss side HC Lugano did back in the 2016/17 season. Join us as we recall their impressive first season and go back in time to relive their memorable seven-goal thriller against a strong Adler Mannheim.
HC Lugano qualified for the 2016/17 season of the CHL after a memorable run to the Swiss NLA Finals the year prior. Despite narrowly missing out on the championship, it was one of their best playoff runs in recent years and gifted the club their first ever opportunity to compare themselves with Europe’s best in the Champions Hockey League.
Their first opponent in the CHL was Adler Mannheim – a strong contender for the DEL title each year and CHL stalwart, who already had two previous seasons of international hockey under their belt. They knew how to manage games and what to expect from an opponent from a different league and started their season-opening home match against Lugano strongly, scoring early and showing their dominance on the ice, yet when the final buzzer sounded, it was the debuting away side that was a goal up. On their first ever taste of CHL hockey, Lugano managed to crawl back into the game, overturn a two-goal deficit and seal all three points away from home. What a debut!
This started a very impressive first season for the Swiss side. After winning the opening game of their four-game group stage, they went on to win two, including today’s match – their 4:3 OT win at home against Die Adler and lose only one of their remaining three games to finish top of their Group.
With their confidence sky-high they went on to breeze past Czech side HC Pilsen, beating them 7:4 on aggregate in the first elimination round, before being matched with fellow countrymen ZSC Lions in the Round of 16. Despite winning the opening game 3:2 at home, the second leg in Zurich ended 2:3 for the Lions in regulation, tying the series 5:5. Overtime was needed to decide the winner and that sadly ended up being Zurich, who scored the game winning goal just one minute into OT and advanced to the next round.
Looking back at their season, it’s hard not to see how good Lugano were and the big highlight certainly was their home win against Die Adler. Goals, fans, drama, OT – this game had it all.
Tune in at 19:00 CET tonight to watch the game stream live and relive this amazing night.