Switzerland's defending champions, the Zurich Lions, have defeated their biggest rivals Lugano 5-2. The Zurich team made a full recovery after struggling through the first week of the Swiss Hockey Championship.

The defending Swiss champions sharpened their claws before Friday's match against Lugano, who have been runners-up for the last two seasons. After only 7 minutes of play, Larry Huras' team was leading by four goals to nothing.

Scorers for the Lyons included Reto Stirnimann, Raeto Raffainer, Stefan Schnyder, Bruno Steck and the 17-year-old Tim Ramholt.

On the Lugano side, Patrick Sutter scored after 11 minutes. His teammate, Keith Fair, managed to score after penetrating Zurich's defence 30 minutes into the game.

However, their two goals were insufficient to save Lugano's recent three-game winning streak.

Bern dashes Lausanne hopes

Newly-promoted Lausanne were hoping to continue their good start, marked by two victories and one defeat. The game away against Bern started well for them, after two goals by Philippe Orlandi and Dimitri Shamolin.

However, despite their resistance in the first two periods, the Vaud team were then overwhelmed by the Bernese players. Goals for Bern were scored by Sven Leuenberger, Marc Weber, Fabian Sutter, Patrik Juhlin and Derek Armstrong, placing Bern in third position in the overall standings.

Chur, who were playing away against Davos, were unable to overcome their adversaries, finally losing 2-5. Both teams had yet to win a point this season.

Chur now stands at the bottom of the tables, just behind Davos, Kloten and Fribourg, who were given a spanking by Rapperswil-Jona.

Fribourg, which lost 1-7 against the St Gallen team, gave Rapperswill an opportunity to catch up with Lugano in the overall standings.

The team now stand in second position behind Lugano, just ahead of Bern.

In other matches, Ambri beat Kloten 2-1, whereas Langnau drew with Zug 4-4.

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