Beaten four times, then substituted: Swiss goalie Stéphane Charlin
Keystone
Switzerland also loses to Finland in the Euro Hockey Tour in Ceske Budejovice. After trailing 0:5, the result was at least a little more conciliatory at the end with 3:5. The impression remains ambivalent.
Only in the final third did head coach Jan Cadieux’s team perform like a team that deserves its place among the elite and the World Cup favorites. Within two minutes, Tyler Moy, who returned from injury in the playoff quarter-final, and Denis Malgin reduced the deficit to 3:5. It was pleasing to see that both goals were scored by forcing the opposing goalie into action. But that was as good as it got after that.
0:5 after 32 minutes
At half-time and after the Finns had made it 5:0, there were fears of another very bad defeat like the 1:8 against Sweden on Thursday. Offensively mostly harmless, the Swiss back line resembled a chicken coop, without order, without intensity and with hair-raising individual mistakes. They lacked a leader who stood up. Especially in the neutral zone, they were unable to close down the spaces and the Finns came with too much speed.
Goalkeeper Stéphane Charlin was also unconvincing, saving four of eight shots. He was then replaced by Kevin Pasche, who was only beaten once more.
Not so cool
The only bright spot was the overtime game – in which Ken Jäger scored before the second break to make it 1:5 and wake up the Swiss. Defender Christian Marti’s conclusion was ambivalent. “Of course we still have some time and can still improve things,” he said in an interview with SRF. “But it’s not that cool.”
In the end, it was another defeat, but one that at least gives the team a slightly more positive outlook for Sunday’s final game against hosts the Czech Republic (16:00), the last tournament of the Euro Hockey Tour next week in Sweden and, of course, the home World Cup starting on May 15. The squad will undergo further significant changes on Monday. In the two matches against Sweden and Finland, many of the shaky candidates were unable to make the World Cup squad.