Switzerland celebrates its first win against Sweden after 16 defeats in Helsinki as part of the Euro Hockey Tour. Two days after the 2:3 n.V. against Finland, they won 4:3 on penalties.
Against Finland, the Swiss had let a 2-0 lead slip away, against Sweden they were 1-0 (13th) and 3-2 (42nd) ahead. This time, however, coach Patrick Fischer's team were still able to celebrate in the end. Ambri's goalie Gilles Senn was not beaten in the penalty shoot-out, while Damien Riat and Theo Rochette scored in brilliant fashion for the Swiss.
Both goals to give the Swiss the lead in regulation time were scored by captain Sven Andrighetto, who carried over his top form from the championship. The 1:0 was preceded by good forechecking from Damien Riat and a pass from Denis Malgin. The ZSC Lions forward made it 3:2 with a powerful long-range shot in the power play - Fabrice Herzog perfectly took away Swedish goalie Jacob Johansson's vision.
But then came the shock in the 46th minute: the otherwise strong Senn failed to block a puck that he normally handles in his sleep. Emil Pettersson profited and equalized to make it 3:3. The 1:2 (27') was absolutely unnecessary from the Swiss point of view. Tim Berni lost the disc in the middle zone instead of shooting it low, whereupon fellow defender Inaki Baragano did not cut the best figure and Oskar Lang took advantage of a 2:0 situation. The Swiss conceded the 1:1 through Anton Bengtsson 33 seconds before the first break, i.e. at a more than inopportune moment.
The fact that the Swiss found a way to win despite these setbacks against a strong Sweden - 14 players in the Scandinavian team have NHL experience - speaks for them and underlines their good development. The last win against Sweden was on April 7, 2016 (5:3). Dario Simion scored the Swiss equalizer to make it 2:2 in the 39th minute.
The Czech Republic will be the last opponent on Sunday. It will be a rematch of this year's World Cup final, which the Eastern Europeans won 2:0.
SDA