Eismeister Zaugg
The biggest playoff heroes of Swiss ice hockey – rank 10 to 1
Who are the biggest playoff heroes in Swiss ice hockey? Who could know this better than one of the greatest ice hockey experts and multiple “sports journalist of the year” Klaus Zaugg? Just. So here is his list.
The first playoffs were played in spring 1986. Heroic stories have been written year after year ever since. There will be no such stories for the first time in 2020. Time to look back and list the 50 greatest in the past.
They are not just winners and masters. The drama of the playoffs means that players can also write a hero story that in the end may not lift the trophy or that only come into the spotlight in a single evening. Our lineup is about years of dominance, titles, but also heroes from a single game.
It is a list without any claim to completeness or even correctness, shaped by personal memories, not free of errors and also not entirely free of polemics. I have seen all of the heroes listed in the stadium since 1986. As a club, we only listed the most important employers among the individual players.
10. Gil Montandon
Striker; Bern and Friborg
He shapes the SCB master teams from 1991, 1992 and 1997 and these references alone would secure him a place high up in our list. But the biggest playoff act he did only on March 1, 2008 at the age of 42. Gottéron is a gross outsider in the quarterfinals against qualification winner Bern. But in the sixth game, Gottéron has the chance to decide the series on their own ice.
After 60 minutes it is 3: 3. Gil Montandon scores 4: 3 in the 69th minute – he is the oldest extension shooter in our playoff history. Gottéron is in the semi-final, the SCB has to cope with one of the biggest playoff failures in its history. A year later, Gottéron made it to the seventh game in the semi-final against Davos. It’s Gil Montandon’s last game. And he scores 1-0. The game was lost 3-4 times with a goal from Andres Ambühl 47 seconds before the end – but Gil Montandon proudly and upright left the big stage after more than 1000 games as a goal scorer.
9. Gaëtano Orlando
Striker; Bern, Lugano and SCL Tigers
One of the most charismatic playoff lead wolves in our history, statistically clearly better at 1.35 points per playoff game than Reto von Arx, André Rötheli or Jörg Eberle, who all don’t get one point per game. And if necessary also a tough and cunning provocateur.
The Italo-Canadian led the SCB to the championship title in 1997 and two years later in Lugano. On April 1, 1999 he scored in the third final game in Ambri in extra time (76:06 minutes) the winning goal for 3: 2, which broke Ambris heart and Lugano paved the way to the title. And it is almost forgotten that he brought Langnau back to the NLA in 1998 – he was only committed to the promotion games (4 games / 5 points). He now works as a scout for the New Jersey Devils.
8. Reto Pavoni
Goalkeeper; Kloten and Servette
Four titles in a row (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996) – no other goalkeeper has managed to achieve this in the playoff era. This “grand slam” is all the more remarkable because two of these masterful triumphs (1993, 1994) were won in the final against the best offensive players in our playoff history – and that was only possible with Reto Pavoni.
Slawa Bykow and Andrej Chomutow broke on him, who produced 97 points in 22 games in 1993 and 1994 in the playoffs – and yet failed twice in the final due to Reto Pavoni. In 2002 Reto Pavoni switched to Servette for four years and ended his professional career after two years in the DEL near Krefeld (2006 to 2008). Today he is goalkeeper coach at Kloten.
7. André Rötheli
Striker; Zug, Lugano and Bern
Artists are actually not suitable for the rough playoffs. But André Rötheli is one of the smartest and most talented center forward in our hockey history. It also prevails when the game becomes rougher and more intense (0.66 points per playoff game). He plays a dominant role with three master teams: 1998 in Zug (he was even a captain there), 2003 in Lugano and 2004 in Bern.
For the decisive fifth final game on April 10, 2004 in Lugano, hobby pilot André Rötheli organized a charter flight for the team from Belp to Lugano to avoid the time-consuming Easter traffic jam on the way to Lugano. As head of sports he comes up to the final with Kloten 2014 (lost 0: 4 against the ZSC Lions), but as a coach he is not very lucky: He takes over the Kloteners on 6 April 2018 in the league qualification against the Lakers for the fired Kevin Schläpfer, relegates with the EHC, can keep the job and is finally fired after the third loss in the quarterfinals against Langenthal on March 2, 2019.
6. Ari Sulander
Goalkeeper; ZSC Lions
On May 16 and 17, 1998, with Finland, he only allowed one goal in the two World Cup finals against Sweden in the Hallenstadion (yes, two finals were played in 1998) – and Sweden went 1-0 in the first and 0 : 0 in the second final game but world champion.
From then on, the Hallenstadion Ari Sulanders is home. He becomes the first foreign goalkeeper to achieve cult status in our hockey. The introverted Finn wins the title with the ZSC Lions 2000, 2001, 2008 and 2012. In 2008 he decided the championship almost single-handedly: The ZSC Lions won the fifth and sixth final game against Servette in the penalty shootout and Ari Sulander stopped five of the six attempts by the Geneva team.
In 2009 he won the Champions Hockey League and the Victorias Cup with the Zurich team by 2-1 against Chicago – the first victory of a Swiss team against an NHL team. He is sporting director Simon Schenk’s most important transfer – because only thanks to the backing of this exceptional goalkeeper from the 1998/99 season is it possible to bring Stadtzürcher hockey back to masterful heights for the first time since 1960 and to make ZSC Lions one of the most successful hockey companies of the 21st Century.
5. Leonardo Genoni
Goalkeeper; Davos, Bern and Zug
Champions 2009, 2011 and 2015 with Davos and 2017 and 2019 with the SCB: no goalkeeper of the playoff age has won more championships. Shouldn’t he be classified in front of Renato Tosio? In any case, purely statistically. In terms of hockey, he is also the better-trained, more modern goalkeeper than Renato Tosio.
However, he doesn’t have the Churer’s show and spectacle talent, and that’s probably why he’s the even better, more consistent last man. But ice hockey is also part of the entertainment industry and better than Renato Tosio, no goalkeeper has entertained the valued audience in the playoffs (and otherwise). But one thing is clear: If the 2018 World Cup hero also gives Zug the title, then he will rise to the undisputed number 1 in this rating.
4. Renato Tosio
Goalkeeper; Bern
He never missed a single game for the SCB from October 3, 1987 to March 20, 2001. 655 games in a row for the same club. It is not just the four titles (1989, 1991, 1992, 1997) that make him the largest playoff goalie in our history. On March 11, 1989, the SCB won the title by 4-2 in the Resega. It is the first playoff surprise in our history.
Actually, the real playoffs for us only begin with this final series from 1989 – before that, the playoffs were just confirmation of the qualification results and operetta events. Lugano had won the qualification in 1986, 1987 and 1988, won the title and had not lost a single final game. But in 1989 Lugano failed as the qualification winner at the third-placed SCB.
In this 4-2 win in the all-important fifth final game, Renato Tosio is probably the best performance a goalkeeper has ever achieved in our playoffs. The best Lugano in history, the “Grande Lugano”, the tactical masterpiece by John Slettvoll breaks in the 1989 final on one man. To Renato Tosio.
3. Jörg Eberle
Striker; Lugnao, Kloten and Zug
In 1982 he was called up as an NLB player (Herisau) for the World Cup (at that time Switzerland was still playing at the B World Cup) and, with 3 points in 7 games, is one of the few bright spots among the disappointing Swiss, who was only thanks to a bribe scandal (one previously agreed 3: 3 against Romania) can avoid relegation at the expense of China.
Then one of our hockey’s greatest careers begins: Jörg Eberle won the last two titles with Davos in 1984 and 1985 before the playoffs, he is a dominant player personality in Lugano’s master teams from 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1991 and with Zug he won his seventh title in 1998 . In the last playoff game (with train in the semifinals in 1999) he scored the honor goal for Zug in the 1-6 defeat in Lugano on March 23, 1999. With Davos (2002) and Lugano (2006), he became champion of sports, and from 2013 he retired to the quieter life of young hockey.
2. Kenta Johansson
Striker; Lugano
The introverted Swede dominated the first four playoff years in our history in a way that no player ever achieved after him: 58 points in 27 games (2.15 points per game) – a statistic that has never been surpassed is. Not by his brother Mikael (1.43) in Kloten, nor by Slawa Bykow (1.75) and Andrej Chomutow (1.85).
In the decisive game of the first playoff final in history, Lugano was 2: 4 behind in Davos on March 1, 1986. Kenta Johansson turned the game around with four goals in the final third – 4: 3 (48:54), 4: 4 (51:24), 5: 5 (57:28) and 6: 5 (59:03) – Lugano wins 7: 5 and the first title of the playoff era.
Actually, he should be number 1. But he reached his fabulous values at a time when the playoffs were just starting to get going with us. He leaves Lugano after the final defeat in 1989, ends his professional career and then becomes a coach in Sweden and unsuccessful for one season (2009/10) in Lugano.
1. Reto by Arx
Striker; Davos
Without «ifs and buts» the best playoff player in our history. No one has played such a dominant role over such a long period of time. In 2002 he won his first championship with Davos and in 2015 the sixth and last title. The end of his career is worthy of a Hollywood film: he scored only one goal in 43 games during the 2014/15 qualification. It will only be used four times in the playoffs. On April 11, 2015, he scores in the fifth and last final game in the Hallenstadion in the final third for the redeeming 1-0 (49:04 minutes).
It is the goal that brings the HCD the last title to date, the game ends 3-0. His last goal in his last game decides the championship – truly, there couldn’t be a better finish. After his resignation, his friendship with Arno Del Curto, the most successful male friendship of our hockey, breaks down. It is also the beginning of the end of Arno Del Curto’s terrific coaching career. Today Reto von Arx works as a junior coach for the association.
