Tonight, the ZSC (Zurich) Lions of the Swiss National League stunned the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, beating them by a 2-1 final score to capture the second Victoria Cup in front of their fanatical – and ecstatic – home crowd.

The Victoria Cup is the first trophy sanctioned by both the IIHF & the NHL, and is contested between the European club champion and an NHL challenger (picked by the NHL to compete). In last year’s inaugural Victoria Cup, the New York Rangers rallied from a 3-0 deficit late in the second period to defeat Russia’s Metallurg Magnitogorsk (which plays in the KHL) by a 4-3 final score.

Chicago used all of its stars with the exception of Marian Hossa (injured), and perhaps last year’s Stanley Cup semi-finalists expected to make quick work of the Lions. After all, Chicago only last night dismantled current Swiss champion (and current NLA leader) HC Davos in a 9-2 rout, outshooting the traditional Spengler Cup host team by a 42-12 count, despite resting many of its starters and using a fair number of players from its AHL farm club. ZSC was a giant underdog coming into the contest.

Tonight was a different story. Perhaps the Blackhawks were unaware of ZSC’s heroics from the past year. The Lions were the surprise winner of last year’s European Champions League, which gave them the right to play the Blackhawks yesterday. The Lions won series against teams from the more highly regarded Swedish, Czech and Finnish elite leagues before sweeping Metallurg Magnitogorsk in the finals in what itself was a stunning upset.

Chicago got on the board first, scoring at 6:13 of the first period. Cam Barker’s seemingly routine shot from the blueline eluded Lions’ goaltender Ari Sulander. ZSC countered at 12:25 with a beautiful breakaway goal from Patrick Bartschi, who deked Blackhawks goalie Cristobal Huet before depositing the puck into the waiting net.

Sulander was very strong in goal for the Lions, who were outshot 35-22 by Chicago in the game. Although Bartschi (who, in addition to scoring, was stopped on a third period penalty shot) was named the game MVP, it was Sulander who was the true star for the Lions and the difference-maker against the Blackhawks.

ZSC fourth liner Lukas Grauwiler’s goal at 14:44 of the second period, a tip-in from just in front of the crease, put ZSC ahead 2-1. The Lions never relinquished the lead. After withstanding late pressure from the shocked NHL’ers, the final buzzer sounded, setting off a riotous celebration by the Lions, who mobbed Sulander in his crease, while the crowd roared its approval for several long minutes.

ZSC won the contest playing what appeared to be a hybrid of the European and North American style of games. They mixed the typical finesse skating & puck control typical of Europe with the speed and physicality typical of North America. When Chicago put them under intense pressure, they played a tight trap to perfection, blocked shots, and they counter-attacked quickly when given the chance.

To their credit, the Blackhawks did not make any excuses. Coach Joel Quenneville called the Lions an excellent team that was well coached and played with a purpose and a plan, and said that they deserved the win. Superstar Patrick Kane said the loss is "tough to swallow" as the Blackhawks lost "to a team we're supposed to beat," and said he wished that the Blackhawks had a chance to play the Lions again. He noted that the Blackhawks controlled play for almost the entire game, and outshot the Lions, but that "we didn't finish our chances, and they did. They deserve full credit." Kane also said that “It’s tough to find anything positive, we definitely wanted to win this, we were still playing for a cup, and pride.” Blackhawks assistant captain Patrick Sharp stated that ZSC was excellent defensively and complimented Sulander's play.

As for ZSC, coach Sean Simpson was quoted as saying that it was a thrill simply to play against an NHL team, but that to beat one was unbelieveable. Simpson said that the Blackhawks might beat them 9 out of 10 - but didn't last night. He noted that “against Chicago it was just one game and anything can happen in one game if you believe in yourself and work hard.” Victoria Cup MVP Patrick Bartschi, who had five shots on goal, said “I can hardly believe this. Something like that doesn’t happen every day. It was a huge performance. We beat the Chicago Blackhawks, a team where our best players probably wouldn’t get any ice time, so we can be very proud of what we’ve achieved.”

Bartschi shouldn’t have been so surprised, and neither should the Blackhawks or the rest of the hockey world. Last night simply put an exclamation point on ZSC’s reputation as giant-killers.

As a side note, other European teams were in action against NHL teams in the past several days. Finland’s Tappara Tampere, despite being outshot 50-29, defeated the Florida Panthers 3-2 after a shootout on September 28th to become the first European club to defeat an NHL team since 1991. Other scores saw the Panthers defeat Finland’s Jokerit Helsinki 4-2, the St. Louis Blues defeat Sweden’s Linkoping 6-0, and the Detroit Red Wings celebrate a homecoming of sorts for all of their Swedish stars by beating Swedish Elite League champions Farjestad by a 6-2 count.

The Victoria Cup has been wrested from the NHL by Europe. Game on.

ZSC Lions (SUI) - Chicago Blackhawks (NHL) 2-1 (1-1, 1-0, 0-0)
29 Sep. 2009, Hallenstadion (Zürich), Att: 9,744
0-1 06:13 Cam Barker (Sharp)
1-1 12:25 Patrick Bärtschi (Monnet, Signoretti)
2-1 34:44 Lukas Grauwiler (Buhler)
ZSC 7x2, CHI 5x2, SOG 22:35 (7:11, 6:12, 9:12)

ZSC (4): Ari Sulander; Mathias Seger (2), Daniel Schnyder; Jean-Guy Trudel (2) - Jan Alston - Ryan Gartner; Patrick Geering, Andre Signoretti; Thibaut Monnet (2) - Patrick Bärtchi - Blaine Down (2); Andri Stoffel; Cyril Buhler - Lukas Grauwiler - Olver Kamber; Radoslav Suchy, Philipe Schelling; Mark Bastl (2).

CHI: Christobal Huet; Duncan Keith; Brent Seabrook; Johathan Toews; Troy Brouwer, Patrick Kane; Niklas Hjalmarsson, Brian Campbell; Patrick Sharp (2), Andrew Ladd, Dave Bolland (2); Brent Sopel, Cam Barker; Dustin Byfuglien (4), Ben Eager, Tomas Kopecky; Jack Skille (2), Kris Versteeg, Colin Fraser, Radek Smolenak.