Finnish centre Jani Lajunen is playing his first season with HC Lugano in Switzerland, and he has a very special record. He won a national championship in each of the past three seasons: 2014/15 in Sweden with the Växjö Lakers and then two in Finland with Tappara Tampere. He has also played in the Champions Hockey League with both of those teams and played for Tappara against Lugano during the 2016/17 CHL season.
Now the 27-year-old in the finals for the fourth straight year, as Lugano takes on ZSC Lions Zurich – a rivalry with a lot of history. Zurich won three of the first four games, but Lugano won Game 5 on home ice to force a sixth game back in Zurich on Wednesday.
Lugano have come back before in these playoffs. In the semi-finals they lost the first two games against EHC Biel and trailed 3-0 in Game 3, but came back to win the game and the series. Lajunen missed the first two games after he was slashed in Game 7 of the quarter-finals, and he symbolically scored the last goal into the empty net in that third game to start the comeback to the finals.
Do they have another comeback left in them?
“It’s always hard, but right not we have nothing to lose,” said Lajunen. “We have just go into the game and play our best. That’s the name of the game right now – go try to win the next game.”
“We trust one another and we believe that we are able to win the next game. This year we've had several tough moments but we always bounced back.”Jani Lajunen (forward, HC Lugano)
One of the biggest factors in Lugano's run to the finals has been Latvian goaltender Elvis Merzlikins. He played in all six CHL games that Lugano played in 2016/17 and, like Lajunen, he's signed through next season, meaning both players will be back in the CHL again.
“Elvis has been a great player for us all season long – a huge factor,” Lajunen raved. “He’s battling every night and we all have to help him, d-men as well as us forwards, and then we have to go the other end and score. Our fans always give us a lot of support, so if we can play with emotion, they give us a lot of energy which we can use in our favour.”
About the rest of his teammates, Lajunen said: “We trust one another and we believe that we are able to win the next game. This year we've had several tough moments but we always bounced back. That's one of the strengths we have. Now we just have to keep our minds on the next game.”