Swiss suffer shaky start in ice hockey warm-up
The Swiss ice hockey team has had a rough start in the run-up to the World Championships, losing 3-0 to Finland in its first home friendly.
The match in Olten on Wednesday was played out under the watchful gaze of the sports minister, Ueli Maurer.
Ralph Krueger's team rarely posed a serious threat to their opponents, only coming close to a goal in the sixth minute with a strike by Goran Bezina. Promising attacks by Romano Lemm and Julien Sprunger later yielded no results.
Finland started out strong, scoring 66 seconds into the game.
Patrick Fischer was the last Swiss player to get past a Finnish goalkeeper in 2005. The two teams will meet again in Kreuzlingen on Saturday.
The game was a lead-up to the 2009 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, which begins on April 24 in Switzerland.
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