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. 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. 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. 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.
Player statistics
Scoring leaders
The following players led the league in points, at the conclusion of the regular season. If two or more skaters were tied (i.e. same number of points, goals and played games), all of the tied skaters were shown.
Player Team EV Zug 52 16 47 63 +24 58 Genève-Servette HC 49 22 39 61 +8 55 ZSC Lions 52 27 28 55 +10 18 HC Davos 44 15 37 52 0 16 SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers 49 16 35 51 -1 63 Fribourg-Gottéron 50 23 25 48 -1 34 HC Lugano 52 13 35 48 +12 58 Fribourg-Gottéron 48 15 31 46 -5 48 Genève-Servette HC 49 15 31 46 +8 46 EV Zug 50 24 21 45 +24 6 Fribourg-Gottéron 51 9 36 45 +11 8
Leading goaltenders The following goaltenders led the league in goals against average, provided that they have played at least 40% of their team's minutes, at the conclusion of the regular season.
Player Team Lausanne HC 29 1719 12 2 2 9 65 4 .928 2.27 HC Lugano 42 2359 21 5 2 12 92 6 .928 2.34 Genève-Servette HC 42 2526 19 4 2 11 100 5 .927 2.38 Lausanne HC 23 1359 11 2 2 5 54 1 .920 2.38 ZSC Lions 37 2204 20 4 1 10 88 4 .918 2.40
Playoffs Bracket
Pre-playoffs (7) EHC Biel vs. (10) SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers
(8) HC Davos vs. (9) SC Bern
Quarter-finals (1) EV Zug vs. (9) SC Bern
(2) HC Lugano vs. (10) SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers
(3) HC Fribourg-Gottéron vs. (6) Genève-Servette HC
(4) Lausanne HC vs. (5) ZSC Lions
Semi-finals (1) EV Zug vs. (10) SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers
(5) ZSC Lions vs. (6) Genève-Servette HC
Final (1) EV Zug vs. (6) Genève-Servette HC
References
External links