Despite the 4-1 defeat against Sweden in the first game of the home tournament in Fribourg at the Euro Hockey Tour, Swiss national coach Patrick Fischer sees some positives.
13.12.2024, 00:13
13.12.2024, 07:02
SDA
"It was strange. I'm actually very happy with the game without the glass and the one in the defensive zone. We didn't concede much to them," said Fischer in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency. "But we took too many penalties". The Swedes capitalized on two of them to take a 2:0 lead. "Then we lost our heads for a moment and conceded 0:3. Of course it was difficult after that. But we believed until the end that we could still turn the game around." In the final period, the shot ratio was 19:3 in favor of the Swiss (37:25 in total).
For Dominik Egli, who has been with Frölunda Göteborg since this season, it was "a cool ice hockey game at a good level and again a bit faster than in the league". The 26-year-old defenseman was self-critical: "My penalty and one or two others were unnecessary, you have to be smarter. That took away our momentum after a good first period." They also had their chances, but in contrast to the Swedes, they lacked coolness.
With the 1:4 loss, the Swiss also lost their ninth home game in the Euro Hockey Tour. "We want to win the tournament, so now we have to win twice to still have a chance," says Fischer. World champions the Czech Republic are their next opponents on Saturday at 18:00. Egli speaks of a "good test". Fischer says: "They have a very strong team, are physically robust and play a straightforward game. It will be a good game."
