For the first time since 1939, Switzerland has opened the IIHF World Championship with back-to-back shutouts following a 3-0 win over Norway. Yesterday, it was veteran Leonardo Genoni who shut out Switzerland. In this game, Robert Mayer made 14 saves – all but two of them in the last 33 minutes of the game. Switzerland outshot Norway 26-14 in the game, with Andres Amtzen stopping all but two in his first game of the tournament.
“We wanted to put the game away a little bit earlier, but it's good to know that even in close games we're there defensively, we're stable,” said Swiss forward Christph Bertschy. “It's a positive going forward. We're a well organized defensive team, and we have two great goalies. They do everything we need them to do, and systematically also we're well organized.”
“I feel good. It was my first game this tournament so it was nice getting out there and facing a lot of shots,” said Amtzen. “That’s always fun but it’s wins that count, so we’ve got to make sure we come out better next time.”
Dario Simion and Andrea Glauser scored the goals in the first period, with Marco Miranda drawing the primary assist on both, before the Swiss locked the game down.
On how the Swiss have managed two games with no goals against, Simion said: “It’s tough to say. I think everybody is committed to play defence, even the forwards, and that works for us.”
The Swiss were utterly dominant in the first period, outshooting Norway 14-1 and taking a 2-0 lead.
Simion opened the scoring at 8:13, taking a pass from Miranda in the high slot and firing a wrister between Amtzen’s legs.
Late in the opening period, it appeared that the Swiss had scored for the second time courtesy Jonas Moser, but Norway challenged the play for goaltender interference and the officials agreed, as Andres Ambuhl’s skate contacted Amtzen’s left leg as he was sliding to his left, slowing the goalie’s momentum.
At that point, it looked like Norway might get out of a first period that they had been significantly outplayed down by just a goal. However, the Swiss scored again off the rush with 32 seconds left in the period, with Miranda’s backhand pass finding Glauser, who chipped it over Amtzen’s glove from in close.
“They were good in the offensive zone,” Norway defenceman Christian Kaasatul said about the Swiss. “They moved the puck well which made it hard to take a man and get the puck out. We have to create more pressure in their end. Right now, we just have to focus on the next game and try to play the best we can.”
The first half of the second period was pretty much the same story as the first. However, three straight Swiss penalties, including 30 seconds of 5-on-3 time, gave Mayer some work to do. The Norwegians didn’t score, however, and their best scoring chance came at 5-on-5 in the last minute of the period off the stick of Ludvig Hoff, which Mayer was lucky to deflect away with the tip of his blocker.
“Our second period was not the way we want to play, both yesterday and today,” said Bertschy. “Overall, we've had a well-deserved six points over the first weekend, and of course to not be scored against is really positive.”
The Norwegians got another great chance in the first minute of the third period when the puck was given away to Matthias Trettenes, who misfired.
After that, the Swiss did a good job of locking down the final period. In fact, the shots in the last 20 minutes were 5-2 for Switzerland. Nino Niederreiter locked the game down with an empty-net goal with 2:14 remaining.
“Today, I think we struggled to get some sustained offence,” said Kaasatul. “I think we played well defensively, but between yesterday and today it's two tough losses.”
The regulation win pulls Switzerland even with Canada atop Group B with six points each, while Norway stays on one following yesterday’s shootout loss to Kazakhstan. Both teams have tomorrow off and are back in action on Tuesday.
