Austria came into the game riding a historic high. Never before had they won all three of their first three games at an IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. That streak ended today when Switzerland rolled to a convincing 9–0 win.
Theo Rochette scored two and added an assist, Timo Meier scored one and added two assists and Sven Andrighetto picked up three assists.
Swiss goaltender Leonardo Genoni now holds the IIHF Worlds all-time shutour record, 13.
"He's been unbelievable for us. Every tournament he's at, I feel like he's the best goaltender. Just the way he plays, he's so calm back there. It just gives us that extra security. We can't say enough about what he's done for the Swiss national team," team captain Roman Josi said.
"We expected a really hard game and a really good Swiss team. I think you could see that they were a ton better than us. Always a step ahead of us, or two steps ahead of us, quick on everything. And that's the result," said Austria's Paul Stapelfeldt.
The Swiss offense worked like—excuse the stereotypical pun—clockwork. They were very effective and took advantage of their chances. It was Switzerland’s biggest win over Austria in the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship since 1949, when Switzerland beat Austria 10–1.
Rochette kicked off the fireworks with a one-timer off a nice backhand pass from Denis Malgin on an odd-man rush that Malgin had created by simply being faster than the Austrian players on the ice. Switzerland 1 – Austria 0 at 5:11.
Four minutes later, Meier found Dominik Egli flying down the right wing. Egli waited for Meier to get into position and flipped the puck back to him, and Meier beat David Kickert with a snap shot from the slot at 9:20.
"I think we just played for 60 minutes. Obviously, we had a great start, came out the right way. They had a lot of confidence, I think, before the game. So we didn't want to give them too much since they were coming off three wins. I think we played the right way, handled a lot of good details the right way, and scored a lot of goals too," Egli said.
And the goals kept on coming.
A couple of shifts later, the Swiss sent another attack into the Austrian zone. Attilio Biasca had a chance, but Kickert made a save. Biasca won the battle in the corner, passed the puck to Meier behind the net, and he sent a saucer pass right onto the tape of Nico Hischier, who made it 3–0 at 11:28.
A little over a minute later, Switzerland got their first power-play opportunity. Andrighetto and Dean Kukan set it up, and Damien Riat made it 4–0 from the slot with 6:39 remaining in the period.
It took Switzerland almost ten minutes into the second period to score their fifth, but they did do it on the power play. Meier fired from the point, and Nico Hischier took care of the rebound.
And just 21 seconds later, Calvin Thürkauf scored his first goal of the tournament when he lasered it from the top of the right faceoff circle and beat Kickert high on the glove side to make it 6–0, a score Roger Federer would’ve been proud of.
Austria then made a goalie change, and Florian Vorauer came in in relief.
He was only in for a little over two minutes when he had to fish the puck out of the net. Rochette scored his second of the night with a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle. Vorauer got a piece of it, but the puck bounced in for 7–0 at 12:19.
The Swiss got closer to a record win with ten minutes remaning when Riat scored his second of the game, from the exact same spot as his first one. It, too, was a powerplay goal that made it 8-0 at 10:29. The Swiss had converted on all three of their power play opportunities, so a fourth power play with six minutes remaining was bad news for Austria.
Christoph Bertschy’s clever shot from a tight angle wasn’t technically a power-play goal because Austria was back at full strength as Bertschy got the puck and made it a record-tying 9–0 at 16:02.
"Despite the score, I think we played a full game. We didn't let up a little bit. It was a huge game from the first period to the third period," Bertschy said.
Austria now has a couple of day's rest before their game against Germany on Friday while Switzerland takes on Great Britain tomorrow.
