Zug Too Good as Battling Giants Fall in Switzerland

First Period

The visitors got off to the worst possible start when Dominik Kubalik finished in front of the net after nice work from Lino Martschini and Tomas Tatar. (1-0) However, the Giants did not let their heads drop and, after EV Zug goalie Tim Wolf lost sight of the puck, Nicolas Guay was on hand to pounce for a leveller with just 01:25 on the clock (1-1)

A flaring of tempers shortly after resulted in three players being sent to the penalty box. Sven Leuenberger sat down for the hosts while both goal-scorer Guay and Gabe Bast were penalised fr the Giants. This didn’t harm the visitors though as they killed that penalty in large part thanks to Jackson Whistle who made excellent saves from Kubalik and Raphael Diaz. The Giants were struggling to get anything going at the other end and had only a JJ Piccinich shot saved to show for their efforts.

Marcus Eriksson was then penalised somewhat harshly for slashing and the home side took full advantage of the full two minutes with a man advantage. First, Kubalik squeezed the puck over the line after a scramble during which Whistle claimed he was illegally impeded (2-1) before Elia Riva hammered home Gregory Hofmann’s layoff (3-1) all while Eriksson could only watch on. Ryan Smith then put wide a great chance with the clock ticking down as Zug went in two goals to the good.

Second Period

The middle stanza began quietly for both teams but the hosts would soon break that thanks to Gregory Hoffman. Zug’s top scorer in the competition unleashed a bullet of a one-timer off of Leuenberger’s pass that flew past Whistle (4-1)

That gave Michael Liniger’s men some breathing space but the Giants came back at them as Patrick Grasso forced a good stop from Wolf. Adam Keefe’s men were given a man advantage when Andreas Wingerli was sat down for holding and they did everything but score. Piccinich had a shot saved straight from the face-off and rattled the post while Mike Lee had a goal-bound shot blocked by a skate.

Bo Hanson was also sent to the penalty box for the same offence and, likewise, the penalty was killed despite some good chances for the hosts. Whistle tipped a Wingerli effort into the screen before denying Fabrice Herzog in stunning fashion to keep the deficit at three after 40 minutes.

Third Period

It would have been very easy for the Giants to cave going into the last period but far from it. They pulled a goal back through Jake Gaudet who registered his first goal in teal. (4-2) The hosts bounced back with chances for David Sklenicka and Herzog before both sides had players sat down in quick succession. Martschini was first for Zug before Ben Lake fell foul of the officials to cancel out any man advantage.

Both of these penalties were killed but when both returned to five players, the hosts reopened their three goal lead through Sven Senteler on the breakaway (5-2). Adam Keefe’s men did not lie down still despite another setback and Gabe Bast smashed home a ripper of a shot off the face-off on 54:14 to give them a sniff heading into the final moments. (5-3). That was enough for Adam Keefe to pull his goalie with three minutes remaining but that, of course, left them vulnerable at the back and Jan Kovar took advantage to seal the deal for the Swiss side. (6-3)

The Belfast Giants return to the SSE Arena on Saturday evening (13^th September) as domestic action gets underway. That sees the Dundee Stars visit Belfast as Adam Keefe’s men begin their defence of the Challenge Cup. You can get tickets for that one here.