ZSC Lions – EHC Kloten 13-03-2025

This time it's the turn of Europe's best team when ZSC Lions take on EHC Kloten for a match in the Swiss Life Arena. This hall holds a full 12,000 spectators.

ZSC Lions is the club that won the Champions Hockey League final this year against Farjestad on 18.02 this year. A title that says that this team is the best of all in Europe this season. This has probably affected their form in the domestic series a bit lately. But the team ended up number 2, behind Lausanne HC.

EHC Kloten, whom they now face, has qualified for the playoffs after finishing 7th in the series. The quarterfinals are now set.

ZSC Lions – Now it's serious.

The team that has been crowned European champions has been a bit unstable in the domestic series for a while. But now it's serious again, and we know that this team can be good when it comes to trophies. The series ended with 2 wins and 3 losses after the final in Europe. A team that clearly had a reaction and discharge after winning.

Now the team has had a nice break while the teams that ended up between 7-10 had to settle for the last places. This period has been used well for training, and finding shape for the playoffs. We think it will be on the ball again now. They really had nothing to play for in the last series rounds, as they could at most finish second anyway. But when they had to win in the last series round to secure 2nd place, they just beat today's opponent 4-2 after the team clearly mobilized. This team is probably its own worst enemy. The team is good enough to beat all teams in this series. But we wonder if the motivation has been where it should be after the final? We don't think so.

In total, the team finished with 93 points in 52 games, with a goal difference of 156-121. Only 2 teams scored more, and no one allowed less. Proof that the team is solid. The team will probably be more sharpened when we go into this one. We think they will win.

EHC Kloten – Too variable in performance.

EHC Kloten has delivered a season that has ranged from brilliant to the other end of the scale. The team has been very good at home. While away, the team has delivered weakly. The team finished in 7th place. Which meant that the team had to go into the qualifiers against the team that finished in 10th place. There they won two close matches, and both matches were won 5-4.

We expect that such close matches will have cost some energy, so it will be exciting to watch a rested top team in the first match now. The team that had its heyday between 1993-1996, when they won 4 titles in a row, has had tougher times for many years now. After the promotion in 21722, they are now back in good company, and with this as their clearly best season after the comeback. We think the team is happy no matter how the rest of the season ends, and we think it will soon stop here. There should really be too much difference between these teams. It is not away, this team will be able to do anything anyway. Because if we look at the table, this team has been clearly weaker away than at home. In total, the team ended up with 79 points in 52 games, and 134-149. Not much to complain about. Compared to the rest, they are exactly where they should be in the table. But if we only look at away games, the team has performed far below par. 25 points in 26 games is downright weak. The away goal difference is also significantly weaker at 47-82.

So with this as a starting point, we smell a loss in this one.

Conclusion – It smells like gold.

We've seen what this ZSC Lions team can do when they smell precious metal. They made it all the way in Europe, as I said. We think they can do it in these playoffs too.

The weak away statistics of EHC Kloten are actually argument enough for why we think it will go that way. So with a rested and eager home team, we think this one will soon end with a clear home victory. Let the show begin! Internally, ZSC Lions also won the last series round in a match they had to win, with the numbers 4-2. That's where we're going in this one too. We therefore try the following bet.

Hockey at 20:00: ZSC Lions – EHC Kloten: ZSC Lions win -1.5 goals (2.05)