2020–21 NL season

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2020–21 National League season
League National League
Sport Ice hockey
Duration October 1, 2020 – March 22, 2021
Number of games 52
Number of teams 12
Regular season
Best record EV Zug
Runners-up HC Lugano
Season MVP Jan Kovář
(EV Zug)
Top scorer Jan Kovář
(EV Zug)
Playoffs
Semi-Final champions EV Zug
  Semi-Final runners-up SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers
Semi-Final champions Genève-Servette HC
  Semi-Final runners-up ZSC Lions
Swiss champion NL
Finals champions EV Zug
  Runners-up Genève-Servette HC
National League seasons

The 2020–21 National League season was the 83rd season of Swiss professional ice hockey and the fourth season as the National League (NL).

ZSC Lions were the defending regular season winners. Due to the 2020 coronavirus outbreak in Switzerland there was no defending champion as the previous season's playoffs were cancelled.

Due to the 2019–20 league qualification series also being cancelled, the participating teams remained the same as the previous season.

The league announced changes to the format ahead of the season, meaning that 52 games rather than 50 would be played in the regular season. The playoffs would also be re-formatted, so that the top 6 teams now qualified directly for the quarter-finals, with the next four teams playing in pre-playoffs for the remaining two spots. There would also be no relegation from the season.[1] The two pre-playoffs series were played in a best-of-three, the quarter-finals in a best-of-seven and the semi-finals and final in a best-of-five. The series were shortened to allow enough time for the national team to prepare for the 2021 IIHF World Championship.

EV Zug won the regular season with 6 games remaining, having already clinched their club record points total, surpassing their previous best of 98 points from the 2011–12 season.[2] With two games remaining EV Zug broke the record for most points in a single regular season, held by HC Davos from the 2010–11 season.[3] Whilst this season was the first to be 52 games in length, EV Zug passed the milestone in the same number of games as the previous record holders.

EV Zug swept Genève-Servette HC 3-0 in the final to win its first NL title since 1998.

Teams

Team City Arena Capacity COVID-19 Capacity
HC Ambrì-Piotta Ambrì Valascia 6,500 0
SC Bern Bern PostFinance Arena 17,031 0
EHC Biel Biel/Bienne Tissot Arena 6,521 0
HC Davos Davos Eisstadion Davos 6,800 0
Fribourg-Gottéron Fribourg BCF Arena 8,934 0
Genève-Servette HC Geneva Patinoire des Vernets 7,135 0
Lausanne HC Lausanne Vaudoise Aréna 9,600 0
HC Lugano Lugano Cornér Arena 7,800 0
SCL Tigers Langnau im Emmental Ilfis Stadium 6,000 0
SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers Rapperswil St. Galler Kantonalbank Arena 6,200 0
ZSC Lions Zürich Hallenstadion 11,200 0
EV Zug Zug Bossard Arena 7,200 0

Regular season

Due to coronavirus cases in both EHC Biel and SC Bern forcing late season stoppages to training, not all regular season games could be completed, and the league would use points per game to determine the final regular season standings.[4]

Pos Team Pld W OTW OTL L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 EV Zug 52 33 7 6 6 197 128 +69 119 Advance to Playoffs
2 HC Lugano 52 24 9 2 17 160 137 +23 92
3 Fribourg-Gottéron 51 26 4 4 17 159 151 +8 90
4 Lausanne HC 51 23 7 6 15 159 125 +34 89
5 ZSC Lions 52 24 6 6 16 170 143 +27 90
6 Genève-Servette HC 50 22 7 4 17 167 129 +38 84
7 EHC Biel 48 20 6 6 16 149 137 +12 78 Advance to Pre-playoffs
8 HC Davos 51 20 5 4 22 174 177 −3 74
9 SC Bern 48 15 3 5 25 129 156 −27 56
10 SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers 50 15 3 5 27 141 180 −39 56
11 HC Ambrì-Piotta 51 12 3 8 28 107 158 −51 50
12 SCL Tigers 52 8 2 6 36 107 198 −91 34

Playoffs

Bracket

  Pre-playoffs
(best-of-3) 		Quarter-finals
(best-of-7) 		Semi-finals
(best-of-5) 		Finals
(best-of-5)
                                     
    1  Zug 4  
7  Biel 0     9  Bern 2    
  1  Zug 3  
10  Rapperswil-Jona 2    
  10  Rapperswil-Jona 1    
2  Lugano 1
   
  10  Rapperswil-Jona 4  
    1  Zug 3
  6  Genève-Servette 0
  3  Fribourg-Gottéron 1    
6  Genève-Servette 4    
  5  ZSC Lions 0
8  Davos 1  
  6  Genève-Servette 3  
9  Bern 2     4  Lausanne 2
 
    5  ZSC Lions 4  

Pre-playoffs

(7) EHC Biel vs. (10) SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers

SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers win series 2–0


(8) HC Davos vs. (9) SC Bern

SC Bern win series 2–1


Quarter-finals

(1) EV Zug vs. (9) SC Bern

EV Zug win series 4–2


(2) HC Lugano vs. (10) SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers

SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers win series 4–1


(3) HC Fribourg-Gottéron vs. (6) Genève-Servette HC

Genève-Servette HC win series 4–1


(4) Lausanne HC vs. (5) ZSC Lions

ZSC Lions win series 4–2


Semi-finals

(1) EV Zug vs. (10) SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers

EV Zug win series 3–1


(5) ZSC Lions vs. (6) Genève-Servette HC

Genève-Servette HC win series 3–0


Final (1) EV Zug vs. (6) Genève-Servette HC

EV Zug win series 3–0


References

  1. ↑ "League assembly: no relegation, 52 games and pre-playoffs" (in en). swisshockeynews.ch. https://swisshockeynews.ch/index.php/shn/22-swiss-ice-hockey/19494-league-assembly-no-relegation-52-games-and-pre-playoffs. 
  2. ↑ "Zug is qualification winner" (in de). SRF. https://www.srf.ch/sport/eishockey/national-league/national-league-am-mittwoch-zug-ist-qualifikationssieger-scl-tigers-definitiv-rot. 
  3. ↑ "Round-up National League" (in de). SRF. https://www.srf.ch/sport/eishockey/national-league/round-up-national-league-zsc-lions-vermiesen-davos-das-jubilaeum-lugano-in-den-playoffs. 
  4. ↑ "Jetzt zählen Punkte pro Spiel" (in de). blick.ch. https://www.blick.ch/sport/eishockey/nla/auch-zweiter-test-positiv-biel-muss-in-quarantaene-bleiben-id16424822.html. 

External links

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