Switzerland will meet Canada in the Group E match in the World Cup in Finland on Saturday. It’s the first duel since the dramatic quarter-final three years ago.
After 4 of 7 group matches, Switzerland is on its way to the Ice Hockey World Championships in Helsinki. Whether with handbrake in the initial win against Italy, in celebration mode against Denmark or with plenty of struggle in the 5:3 win over Slovakia: Patrick Fischer’s team has always found a way and is already standing with 12 points from 4 games almost certain in a quarter Final.
How good the current Swiss selection will be will be shown for the first time on Saturday. At 3:20 p.m., the team battles against favorites Canada for the title. Like Switzerland, the “maple leaf” has the most points, like Fischer’s team, the world champions still have room for improvement after the first week of the World Cup. The North Americans took a long time to beat Kazakhstan goalless on Thursday before winning 6-3.
Bad memories of 2019
Before the duel with the 27-time world champion, memories of the last meeting with the Canadians come to mind. Switzerland missed a much-cited 0.4sec in Slovakia in 2019 to advance to the semi-finals against Canada. After Leonardo Genone conceded the equalizer just before the siren sounded, Mark Stone fired at the Swiss to smash.
Three years later, the national team finally got a chance for revenge. However, despite the rivals bearing the same name, Switzerland faces an entirely different team on Saturday.
With Thomas Chabot, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Damon Severson, there are still only three players at the time in the squad. However, the latter is very familiar to at least two Swiss people. Like Nico Hischier and Jonas Siegenthaler, Severson is an NHL contractor with the New Jersey Devils.
If the Swiss wanted to respond late, they should also keep an eye on Dubois. The Winnipeg Jets striker has the same number of goals and assists after four games. In the list of scorers, there are currently only two famous players in Switzerland in front of him: Czech Lakers striker Roman Cervenka (2T / 7A) and Switzerland’s Denis Malgin (4/4).
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