Switzerland secures a quarter final spot

Switzerland was a huge favorite to win this important game of Group B. Even the Norwegian coach implied in an interview with IIHF.com that they expected relegation games.

It was however a hard-earned victory for the Swiss boys. The game was close all the way. Kevin Fiala, who was named best Swiss player of the game, got his second assist when he set up Anthony Rouiller for the game-winning 3-2 goal at 51:42.

"It was a pretty hard game for us. We didn't play so well", says Fiala to Eurohockey. "The goalie from Norway was pretty good. In the first period we had good chances, but no goals. But we kept going and they came in the second and third period."

"Offensively we played very well", says Swiss first line center Jason Fuchs about the game."We put pressure on them. We were a bit unlucky, we had a few posts but the important is to win the game and we did it".

"Today's game was good", says Norwegian head coach Ørjan Løvdal. "Now we will lick the wounds for two days.

Norway had been in the lead for 25 minutes after a goal in the middle of period one, but Switzerland tied it and took the lead before Norway made it 2-2.

Switzerland still has a game against Finland to play and a win there may take them even higher in the standings than the current fourth spot.

Jens Tønjum had the first good scoring chance when he took a shot from close distance in the second minute. A minute later Kevin Fiala was not too far from scoring for Switzerland but Joachim Svendsen denied him.

The teams took turns in exchanging scoring chances until the Norwegian captain Erlend Lesund on his own took the puck into the attacking zone and fired a well placed shot that beat Melvin Nyffeler.

After the goal the play was mostly in the Norwegian end. The Swiss shots were hard but not very accurate.

Norway had the first power-play of the game and it was pretty good but didn't result in a goal. Switzerland also got a chance just after and almost scored. Kevin Fiala had a wide open net but hit the post.

The second period started with a Swiss power-play followed by a Norwegian, but neither team scored. Just after Switzerland had returned to full strength Dario Simion was extremely close to tie the game when his shot hit both posts but instead Switzerland got another penalty in the aftermath.

With six minutes left of the period Switzerland got to play 5-on-3 for a minute and a half and when two out of three Norwegians skated for a line change it was nobody there to stop Fabrice Herzog from tying the game.

A few minutes later it ways Norway's turn to get a 2-man advantage for 43 seconds. Mattias Nørstebø's shot hit the post but they didn't get closer than that.

In the 47th minute Sandro Zangger advanced on the right side of the ice and took a shot at Svendsen. Swiss star defender Mirco Müller, a 2013 first round NHL draft pick, picked up the rebound and easily scored 2-1.

Norway didn't need much time to tie the game again. This time it was Christoffer Rasch who found a rebounding puck when Norway was on power-play after a diving call against Switzerland's Julian Schmutz.

During another power-play Switzerland restored the lead when Anthony Rouiller took a hard one-timer from the left circle. A goal that turned out to be the game-winner.

Rouiller decided the game with his first goal of the tournament.

Norway couldn't put a lot of pressure on Switzerland during the final minutes. Instead the Swiss players created a number of chances for goal number four.

A time-out was called by Norwegian coach Ørjan Løvdal 47 seconds before the end but they didn't get a chance to pull the goalie until a Swiss icing when there were 2.6 seconds remaining, but then of course if was too late.

Norway lost it and now remains relegation games in a best-of-3 series. Opponent is still not known.

"The fun starts now. We are looking forward to next game against Finland", says Kevin Fiala. "Hopefully we'll win and finish third and let's see who we'll meet. And let's beat them".

Tweets by @eurohockey