“Are we running the Servettes?” “Treille, he should get to the goal, it can’t be worse!” At the Vaudoise arena, Tuesday evening, there was a rare laugh. The game in the stands at the end of the match? Try to remember the last death inflicted one day by the LHC on one of its opponents. Even ChatGPT or Google gave up the ghost to find the trace of such a volley proposed by Lausanne HC to an opponent. Sierre, Young Sprinters, maybe… But in modern hockey, in League A, impossible. With the icing on the cake of having done it against neighboring Lake Geneva!
But there was no particular excitement around the Vaudois locker room, after one of the most memorable matches played in the Olympic capital. A city where, for a long time, it was the mortifying defeats which gave much more rhythm to the lives of supporters accustomed to the worst. It seems that the demolition of Malley and the erection of the Vaudoise arena made it possible to excavate the Indian cemetery that the people of Lausanne thought responsible for all their hockey misfortunes. It’s certainly better to win 1-0 eleven times than 11-0 once, that’s true. But for once local fans have room to dream, it’s worth taking advantage of it.
“Everything was in our favor… The bad rebounds, the favorable blocks, all that.” Benjamin Bougro can talk about it, he who made it 4-0 by putting the puck in front of the goal. A puck that goalkeeper Stéphane Charlin, League MVP in 2024/2025, was responsible for propelling to the bottom himself. The goals piled up and there, the people of Lausanne have not necessarily stepped on the accelerator yet. “Honestly, at that moment all you want is not to concede goals. You play for your goalkeeper,” explained the 22-year-old Franco-Swiss.
The people of Lausanne did it and the statistics of 33 shots on target to 27 also explain, a little, the strangeness of the evening. “We shouldn’t give all the credit to luck, we played well from start to finish,” finished the local player. In the second third, the score was more severe than what the stats showed, it’s true. But in the end we lasted the 60 minutes as needed.” The LHC has conceded two goals in the last three matches and Connor Hughes was entitled to his shutout, a sign that cohabitation with Kevin Pasche is working.
“Everything was going for us this evening and nothing for Geneva,” said Théo Rochette after his hat-trick. I think they still had a good second period. It was an evening where for us it worked, for them it didn’t work at all. You have to know how to take them. When it comes, it’s cool. We take advantage of it! Now we will have to be ready for Friday, so as not to arrive in Rapperswil too confidently.” With Geoff Ward behind the band, there’s little chance of that happening.
And then it must be said all the same: these people of Lausanne have no heart. Théo Rochette scored a hat-trick, Erik Brânnström scored two goals and provided two assists, Drake Caggiula did the same and Austin Czarnik scored a goal and offered four… But they let Cédric Fiedler score the tenth and pay for the case of beer! A Swiss-American whose this is only the second achievement for the Lions in 82 matches and who has one of the lowest salaries in the squad. Not nice! “And why?” laughed Bougro. He scored the right goal, now we have to pay!”
