Switzerland’s 1-0 shutout victory over Denmark on Sunday night was an amazing accomplishment, and not just because the Swiss started with two wins and no losses to start the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. The Swiss held the Danes to a mere four shots on goal throughout the game, setting a new record for fewest shots in a single World Championship game in modern history of hockey since shots haven been recorded.
But it didn’t just break the record, it shattered it.
Defencemen Markus Lauridsen and Emil Kristensen had long-range shots in the first period, followed by Oliver Larsen in the second and then early in the third period, Mikkel Boedker was the only Danish forward to put a puck on Berra. There was also an incident late in the first period where a referee’s whistle for a goal-crease infraction negated what would have been a Danish goal, but that didn’t count as a shot.
“I haven’t experienced that for a while,” Swiss coach Patrick Fischer said after the game. But he’s never experienced it in the World Championship and never seen anything remotely close unless as a 16-year-old he was watching the Swiss national team play at the 1992 World Championship on television (see below).
“Denmark has good players, they beat Sweden,” Fischer continued. “To allow only four shots shows the commitment of our team and that we didn’t give them room to breathe.”
Prior to Sunday, the record for fewest shots by one team was seven, and that had been done three times. By only registering four shots on goal, the Danes only managed to reach 57 per cent of the previous low, giving Swiss goaltender Reto Berra the easiest shutout in tournament history.
Think of it this way... When Danish coach Heinz Ehlers called his timeout with 57 seconds remaining in regulation time, his team, despite its impotent offence to that point in the game, still had a very real shot at winning the game being down only one goal. The Danes could have conceivably tied the score, then won it in overtime and still set the record for fewest shots in one World Championship game.
“The annoying part was that we were just one shot – one lucky bounce – away. Ultimately, the difference was one goal,” Danish goalie Sebastian Dahm said post-game, expressing both hope and frustration.
It’s interesting that Dahm was involved in this game, as he has had the opposite experience to Berra at past World Championships. Back in 2016 in Russia, Dahm faced 232 shots over the course of the tournament and helped Denmark reach the quarter-finals, which is tied for the fourth-highest total of the 21st Century. Two years ago in Slovakia, he was also one of the tournament’s busiest goalies.
And of course, Denmark is now on the wrong end of two World Championship single-game records. In addition to fewest number of shots, they also famously allowed 47 goals in a game against Canada in 1949, in what was obviously an entirely different era for the sport. As difficult as it might be to register fewer than four shots in a single game, the goal record is probably less likely to ever fall.
The three games to see one team have seven shots on goal since the IIHF began keeping the statistic are:
4 May 1992 – Switzerland vs Czechoslovakia
By keeping the Danes to four shots, the Swiss took themselves out of a tie for first place in the record book. In the last game of Group B back in 1992, Czechoslovakia and Switzerland met in a big game to decide second and third places in the group. On their home ice in Prague, the Czechoslovaks played stingy defence and won 2-0, with Petr Briza posting the seven-save shutout. The total shots on goal that game were 22-7, and the total of 29 is the lowest total by both teams in an IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship game.
The two teams met again six days later in the bronze-medal game, with Czechoslovakia winning again 5-2.
28 April 2003 – Slovenia vs Finland
Again, it was a team playing on its home ice that gave up a low number of shots, this time Finland, which included Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu at the Tampere Ice Hall. This game wasn’t close with the Finns scoring four goals each period en route to a 12-0 win. The Slovenes finished fourth and last in Group D and were eventually relegated, while Finland finished second in Group D, then third in Group E and were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Sweden, 6-5.
6 May 2017 – Belarus vs Czech Republic
This is the only game of the three that wasn’t a shutout, giving Czech goalie Pavel Francouz the dubious distinction of holding the record for fewest number of shots in a game while not posting a shutout. The goal was scored by Alexander Pavlovich 1:13 into the second period to cut the deficit to 2-1, but the Czechs eventually pulled away and won 6-1. Of the Belarusians’ seven shots, two came off the stick of Artyom Demkov in the third period.
Belarus ultimately finished seventh in Group B while the Czechs finished third, then lost 3-0 to Russia in the quarter-finals.
There have also been eight games where a team recorded eight shots on goal:
19 April 1993 – France vs Finland (0-2, Dortmund, GER)
4 May 2002 – Ukraine vs Sweden (0-7, Gothenburg, SWE)
2 May 2007 – Switzerland vs Sweden (0-6, Mytishi, RUS)
13 May 2016 – Hungary vs USA (1-5, St. Petersburg, RUS)