Swiss lose home opener against Finland

On the second day of the tournament Switzerland got into the action against Finland who had won their game on Thursday 6-1 against the Czech team.

The last time the Swiss played Finland, they lost 0-5 to the Lions at the 5-Nations tournament at the end of last year so Head Coach Manuele Celio definitely wanted to better up for today's qualification round game.

The Finns on the other hand were off to a great start against a Czech Team that had won a silver medal at the last U18 World Championship, winning 6-1. What was extraordinary about the win was that 5 out of 6 goals were scored on the one-man advantage so the Swiss were warned about the powerplay and avoiding penalties.

Joren van Pottelberghe took over the duties of keeping the Swiss goal clean while his antipode Veini Vehvilainen was nominated for the Finns tonight. Finland was off to a slightly better start but Switzerland had two good chances by Denis Malgin and Auguste Impose but couldn't beat Vehvilainen. Instead, Jesse Puljujarvi scored on the first proper chance after seven minutes. Just as a penalty against the Swiss was expiring, Nico Hischier was able to steal the puck and face Vehvilainen but the Finn deflected the shot with his blocker but now the Swiss had finally found into the game. With 14 minutes played Denis Malgin scored the equalizer unassisted. He had already played a great season with the NLA team of the ZSC Lions who lost to HC Davos in the final series. The Finns had another powerplay chance but van Pottelberghe was solid and kept his net clean to the end of the first period.

Switzerland started with a boxplay to the second period as Roger Karrer had played the puck over the glass. And this time the Finnish powerplay was successful as Patrick Laine deflected a shot by Vili Saarijarvi and put his team ahead again after less than two minutes. The game went on with neither team being able to dominate the other but the Swiss were struggling with taking penalties and offering the Finns chances to increase the score.

The final period saw the Finns with a slight advantage while the Swiss had trouble providing a precise pass and making it difficult to catch up the one-goal deficit. With a little more than 8 minutes left both teams were playing with 4 players each when Vili Saarijarvi scored the third goal, his second point of the evening. With two and a half minutes left, Coach Celio removed van Pottelberghe for a 6th forward in hope for a goal and just as Auguste Impose was about to clear the puck from the corner, Saarijarvi was given a penalty for tripping. Even a second penalty against Jesper Mattila for high sticking wasn't enough for the Swiss to get on the scoreboard a second time and so Finland won their second game and can already prepare for the quarterfinals.

Best player Switzerland: Malgin / Finland: Vehvilainen


Earlier today the Americans and Russians dominated their opponents, beating them 10-0 and 6-0 respectively, The States are continuously proving the US hockey program is a success as they beat the Slovaks. The Americans lead the standings with 8 titles since the U18 World Championship has been introduced in 1999. Russia on the other hand had no trouble to beat last years promotion team Germany. The Germans are viewed as a candidate to be relegated to the Division II but they have another 3 games to prove their critics wrong.

In the fourth game today, Latvia lost to last years silver medal winner Czech Republic and have no points in 2 games. Most likely the Latvians will fight for a spot in the quarterfinals against the Swiss. Both teams will meet up on Monday.

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