Six years ago, the Vaudois had to go to the seventh game to eliminate the Bernese. For the return of tigers to the play-off, Thierry Parrelini and his players are not limited. “In 2019, many people in Langnau were happy to play the play-off. They saw this qualification as a culmination,” said Thierry Paterlini. But this year, it’s not the same song. We feed real ambitions. “
At the bottom of the class four years ago after the COVIR which had really complicated the club’s financial situation to the point of aligning only two foreigners during the 2020/2021 season, the Langnau Tigers are going through a remarkable season. “Fantastic”, even loose Thierry Pierterlini. “Already last year, we did not go far from the play-off, continues the coach. But this season, we have almost always won the matches that had to be won in important moments. I am very proud of my team. She has always been able to find a way out, even in difficult situations.”
For the past three years, Therry Paterlini and the sports director Pascal Müller has been a pair that works wonderfully in the Emmental. “With this duo, we feel that the club is constantly advancing,” says striker Pascal Berger. And with the project of a second skating rink, the infrastructure also follows. “
For Pascal Berger, the big brother, and his teammates, the trip is therefore not over. “When you play in a large team, you tell yourself that the season really starts with the play-off, slides Samuel Erni. For us too, it starts on Thursday”. “Against Kloten, we bowed during our four games in the regular season before eliminating it in a play-in, let go of Julian Schmutz. Against Lausanne too, we have always lost this season. It may be a good sign …”
The big question before this series lies in the presence or not in the cage of Stéphane Charlin, the MVP of the regular season. Wounded on February 2 at the knee in Lugano, the porter was, according to the faculty, observed a rest of two months. But after two weeks spent in Ticino with Emanuele Sarcinella, the physiotherapist who had managed a small miracle two years ago in Bienne to allow Damien Brunner to compete in the Play-Off final against Geneva-Servette, Stéphane Charlin is ahead of all time of passage. His ardent desire to replay with Langnau before returning this summer to Geneva encouraged him, moreover, to put the double bodies in his rehabilitation.
If Stéphane Charlin should not play, the Langnau Tigers would not however be disarmed. Remarkable during the play-in against Kloten with a percentage of stops of almost 96 %, Luca Boltshauser delivers the goods like never before. What if it was him, the ex-Lausannois, the X factor in this series?
