Swiss out after good showing at hockey worlds
Switzerland lost 2-1 to Sweden in the quarter-finals of the ice hockey world championships in Innsbruck on Thursday.
Despite an early goal from the Swiss, the team under coach Ralph Krueger were clearly outplayed by the highly favoured Swedes – last year’s runners-up.
Martin Plüss scored a power-play goal only 80 seconds into the game, but Niklas Kronwall equalised for the Swedes five minutes later.
The game remained tied until the fourth minute of the second period when Daniel Sedin put the Scandinavian side back in front.
Swiss goalie Martin Gerber, who was named the best Swiss player of the tournament, kept the score close, stopping 34 of 36 shots from a powerful Swedish offence.
Although the Swiss played a strong game defensively, their lack of firepower kept them from threatening a Swedish squad strengthened by many professionals from North America’s premier league, the National Hockey League.
Weak offence
“We never put any pressure on them all night,” admitted a dejected Swiss captain, Mark Streit. Swiss skaters only managed 20 shots on the Swedish goalie, Henrik Lundqvist.
But it was the sixth time in eight years that Switzerland has managed to reach the quarter-finals of the world championships and they did so with the help of an impressive 5-1 victory over arch-rival Germany in the preliminary round.
The Swiss team also scored success earlier this year by qualifying for next year’s Winter Olympics in Turin.
In other semi-final action, Joe Thornton, who played for Davos this past season, scored a late third-period goal to lift two-time defending champion Canada past Slovakia, 5-4.
Russia needed a penalty shoot-out to edge Finland after the score was tied 2-2 after regulation time and an overtime period. The Czech Republic and United States game also required a shoot-out with the Czech squad coming out on top.
Russia faces Canada in the one semi-final on Saturday, and the Czech Republic goes up against Sweden in the other.
swissinfo with agencies
Swiss results at the Ice Hockey World Championships:
Czech Republic 3 – Switzerland 1
Switzerland 2 – Kazakhstan 1
Switzerland 5 – Germany 1
Russia 3 – Switzerland 3
Slovakia 3 – Switzerland 1
Sweden 2 – Switzerland 1
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