Switzerland's national ice hockey team skated away with a narrow 3-4 loss against Sweden in a game decided on penalty shots.

For most of the game it seemed the Swiss team might win, beginning with Switzerland's Severin Blindenbacher slipping a fairly harmless shot past Swedish goalie Jacob Markström.

It was not until the final 14 seconds that the Swedes were able to equalise the score on a power play at three goals each.

Of the six penalty shots, only Sweden's Linus Omark was able to connect after he slipped the puck around Swiss goalie Marco Bührer.

The Swiss team had beat Sweden 4-2 at the last world championship, held in Canada. This time, however, the Swiss racked up too many penalties – 11 in two minutes – and wasted too much energy to win.

"We simply can't afford to have so many penalties," said Ralph Krueger, Switzerland's head coach.

The game was a lead-up to the 2009 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, beginning on April 24 in Switzerland.

swissinfo with agencies

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative