In Fribourg-Gotteron and the Straubing Tigers, two teams will make their final premiere at the Spengler Cup on Tuesday at 12.10pm local time. Neither team has ever won a title in their history. For one of the two this final will be a historic triumph.

Of all people it was Samuel Walser - who had worn the HCD colours from 2013 to 2018 - that made the pass leading to Christoph Bertschy’s decisive 3-2 for Fribourg-Gotteron in the semifinals. ‘I saw that Bertschy was rushing forward at 200, and it all fit even if the puck bounced slightly’, remarked Walser on Monday evening shortly after the end of the game. And he adds, ‘even as a young boy, it was always my dream to play a Spengler Cup final. It is a cool tournament. This is now my sixth Spengler Cup. I fell short in the semifinals several times with HCD. Now I am in the final with Fribourg. We obviously want to win it.’ Walser has watched the final opponent Straubing Tigers’ games on TV up to this point. ‘No one would have thought that the Germans would get all the way to the final. But they earned that’, notes Walser. ‘The Straubing Tigers play physical ice hockey. We have to be ready and prepare for their style of play.’

‘We came to the Spengler Cup in Davos to win games’, says Joshua Samanski of the Straubing Tigers before the final. ‘Of course, we are overjoyed to have beaten Team Canada in the semifinals. We put forward a good team effort and made the goals when they were most important. And we played out the game solidly’, says the man who scored to make it 3-2. For Straubing the final will be the fifth contest in roughly 83 hours. Samanski refuses to complain about that. On the contrary. ‘We will be ready to give it our all again’, promises the tall 22-year-old forward (1.97 m). ‘The boys are pretty fit. That’s what we train for in the summer. We are all high-level athletes and have to perform on the ice every day. That’s what we’ve done so far. Now we will be sure to do that on the fifth day as well.’ When asked how he is experiencing his first Spengler Cup, Samanski laughs and says: ‘Very strenuous. But it is a super cool time, when you see the atmosphere the fans are creating every day for every game. But I haven’t seen much of Davos yet. I have spent most of the time in the Eisstadion and at the hotel.’
 

Text: Spengler Cup Onlineredaktion    Foto: Keystone