In winning the Bern derby: SCB puts an end to an incredible penalty curse

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And then Corban Knight drops his sentence as if nothing happened. He easily lifts the puck over the surprised Tigers goalie Luca Boltshauser into the corner. The spell is broken. Benjamin Baumgartner and Romain Loeffel then scored to secure SCB’s victory in the Bern derby (5:4 nP), in which Langnau led 3:0 and 4:1.

It probably took a magical penalty to beat the curse on Bern’s penalty shootouts. The team from the capital had left the ice as losers fourteen times in a row in nerve-wracking head-to-head duels.

Coach Jussi Tapola’s predecessors, Johan Lundskog and Toni Söderholm, were never able to celebrate success in penalty shootouts. The final victory? That happened almost three years ago, on March 2, 2021, during the home match against Servette (4:3 nP). The coach at the time was Mario Kogler. Tristan Scherwey, Inti Pestoni and Vincent Praplan scored, while goalkeeper Tomi Karhunen saved three of the five penalties.

Recently the penalty curse had become even worse, with the Bernese shooters failing 22 consecutive penalty kicks before Knight scored. After Oscar Lindberg scored against Friborg last season on January 29, Tyler Ennis (2 times), Ramon Untersander, Chris DiDomenico (2) and Lindberg (2) remained. Dominik Kahun (4), Romain Loeffel (2), Simon Moser (2), Martin Frk, Knight (2), Benjamin Baumgartner, Marco Lehmann, Joona Luoto and Tuesday Scherwey were unsuccessful.

Did Kahun activate the punishment curse?

Jussi Tapola must have been relieved to see one of his players successfully complete the penalty shootout for the first time. It’s probably best to implement your New Year’s resolutions quickly.

However, the shootout problem has plagued SCB in successful years. The last time he had a positive record was in the 2016/17 season (3 wins, 1 defeat). Since then, the Bernese have only won four of thirty penalties.

During the dark streak of 14 shootout losses, Kahun competed the most. The technically skilled top scorer converted only one of nine attempts. You could almost assume that the German, who had scored against the national team in the World Cup quarter-finals and celebrated in front of the Swiss bank before moving to Bern in the spring, had caused the curse.

Without the 28-year-old German, the penalty shootout would not have taken place on Tuesday. With two goals and two assists each, he was the one who orchestrated the comeback against the Tigers.

Source : Blick