Even the old Fritz had tears in his eyes, says Peter Meier. So was it him occurred, as he had looked at Courgenay high to Fritz, the soldiers monument made of stone. The TK-in-chief drove to the 26. March 1988 Walter Scheibli, the “voice of the ZSC”, from Porrentruy back to the missed climb. The mood in the car was pressed. Zurich had lost in a stirring game against Ajoie 4:5 in overtime and the series with 1:3.

The decisive goal in the Overtime is to be seen on Youtube in a blurry picture. After losing a Bully in their own Zone, and a jumble in the ZSC-Defensive stand Ajoies star striker Daniel Métivier suddenly alone in front of Goalie André Mürner, let him get off with a body of deception and hit into the empty goal. “Yes, this canadian was too much for us,” says Alpo Suhonen, the former ZSC-Trainer.

Video: Ajoie defeated the ZSC in March 1988,

The 71-Year-old lives in the Finnish Forssa, after he has ceased to 2017 as an Association Director in Austria. Currently he holds no Position in the ice hockey . “This is an old story with the ZSC,” says Suhonen. “We were the best Team in the qualification, but in the Playoff we had trouble.” The “Tages-Anzeiger” analyzed mercilessly: “Suhonens pattern students tried to come up with their undeniable playful potency alone, to success, and felt that they went the path of least resistance.”

For Bruno Vollmer, today is the operational Manager of the stadium project in Altstetten, it was the first Zurich season. At 19, he had ventured with Daniel Bünzli and Roger Meier made the leap from the EHC Dübendorf to zürich. “We had a lot more game shares, but two, three stupid mistakes cost us the Match,” he says. And Vollmer can still remember the smell: “The whole hall smelled of sausages.”

The fatal king transfer

It was for the ZSC a defeat with serious consequences. Peter Meier was started in January as a TK-boss and had the Job to drive a two-pronged approach. During the Ajoie-series, the commitment of the former NLA Topskorers Ron Wilson from the HCD was known. “For the NLB season I did not plan it,” says Meier. “The was then easy.”

“I’d like to keep him, practically begged him,”Peter Meier, the former coach Alpo Suhonen.

Suhonen returned after the Failure after a two-ZSC-seasons to Finland, although his contract would have been valid for one year. “I’d like to keep him, practically begged him,” says Meier. But Suhonen was no longer to hold, especially since his wife wegwollte.

Vollmer still raves from the Finns: “Under him, we celebrated the second wave of attack. We trained in the summer with the Basketball.” Puck control and neat passing game were not the maxims of Suhonens, but its design hockey kept the rough Playoff everyday life.

“In the previous year we had failed to train, then to Ajoie,” he sober today. “The ZSC needed a new impulse.” Suhonen Meier recommended his compatriot Timo Lahtinen from the SC Bern, as the successor. The TK-in-chief followed the advice, but theorists, the sense was missing Lahtinen. He made the Team hated Wilson to be Captain, between Christmas and new year both had to go.

Alpo Suhonen is a European pioneer in the NHL. However, with the ZSC he missed the climb twice.

Meier was able to make Wilson the HCD as a Trainer tasty, for Lahtinen Agent Neil Nicholson, of the should actually bring a Coach would have, and then do the Job yourself the confidence came. The less experienced Canadians was initially assisted by Meier, to the gang, so that was him telling who was which player.

The HCD Wilson fell out soon with all of the ZSC of the peaceable Pole Henryk Gruth came. Somehow the Team fought and was henceforth brakes. The ZSC won in 1989, the descent round in front of Ajoie, the was able to hold the class. The HC Davos rose.

“In hindsight, was it better that we made only a year later the rise”, says Peter Meier. “I had more experience, and also the young düben, the villagers were all a year older.” It was, as he would have noted that, to date, the last ascent of the former lift clubs ZSC.

Chicago instead of ZSC

Suhonen returned in 1996 as a two-fold Klotener master trainer for the ZSC, for a season. He gladly would have stayed longer, but after the merger with the GC-handball section, the new leadership wanted the hard Hand of Hans Zach. Suhonen moved in the following year as an assistant to the Toronto Maple Leafs and was 2000 in Chicago, the first European NHL head coach.

“plays it’s funny how life is sometimes,” he says. Often it comes as it must come. Thus, the bitter defeat of the ZSC on that memorable 26. March 1988 to a Larger just one Episode on the way.

icebreaker – Hockey Podcast by Tamedia

The broadcast can be heard on Spotify as well as Apple. Or directly here:

Created: 26.11.2019, 10:40 PM