The Swiss National League A Finals begin Thursday, with regular season winners ZSC Lions Zurich hosting HC Davos. While Zurich appear on paper to be heavy favourites, Davos' play in the first two rounds – particularly their sweep of SC Bern – hasn't gone unnoticed. 

by Andreas Reiner

ZURICH – With both teams finishing off their semi-final opponents, ZSC Lions Zurich will host HC Davos in the first game of the 2015 National League A Finals on Thursday. With the Lions winning game six in Geneva last Saturday, Marc Crawford's team will face a well-rested Davos club, which finished off favoured SC Bern in four straight games a week ago. 

“Zurich has the best team in the league, there's no disputing that,” Davos head coach Arno del Curto said on the team website, trying to downplay any advantage his team might have. “However, our games against the ZSC were all close, even though we didn't score many goals.”

He's certainly right about not scoring many goals. In six meetings between the teams this season, Davos scored only five goals and were shut out twice. Their lone win came on 16 November in Davos by a 2–1 score. However, in the playoffs this seems to be a different team than the one that finished fifth in the regular season.

But as dominant as Zurich have been this season, Davos have recent finals history on their side. In 2001–02 Davos blew away the Lions in four games after winning the regular season. In 2004–05 it was Del Curto's team once more, this time in five games, losing the first before winning four straight. So the stage should be set for a yet another great final. Zurich will look to repeat last year's championship win when the Kloten Flyers were grounded 4–0.

Davos proved may of their critics wrong when head coach Del Curto was able to put together a competitive team with some new, fresh blood paired with the experienced players. Marcus Paulsson, Perttu Lindgren and Dick Axelsson have been valuable additions at the beginning of this season. 

The Lions were able to integrate some of their own raw talent in the past few years such as Chris Baltisberger or Denis Malgin, who many think has a great career ahead of him. Roman Wick has developed into the team's top scorer and should one of the young guns get out of control for once, worry not, team captain and veteran Mathias Seger is there to get the discipline back on track.

“We know that they are full of self-confidence and have done very well in previous series,” Seger said cautiously about his team's opponents. Speaking of the efficient way they have disposed of their first two playoff oppoinents, he added, “Davos always come through at the right moment.”

Even though Davos have had a few extra days to recover, the Lions are hungry to repeat their 2000–01 double championship win but need to get those two losses against the Capricorns out of their heads. The fans should expect some offensive fireworks from both sides, especially from HCD, where Del Curto prefers the offensive game. While Zurich picked up a total of 41 goals in 13 playoff games en route to the finals, Davos collected 34 goals in 10 games.