Swiss defeat Team Czech Republic without any trouble

In an uninspiring relegation round game, Team Switzerland beat the Czechs by a score of 4-2 to gain their first three points of the tournament. The Czechs have to win over Team Latvia to guarantee a position in next year´s U18 championship.

Thursday´s game was extremely important for Team Switzerland because they were pointless in the tournament and facing possible relegation from the elite division

Both teams were rather equal in the first ten minutes but the Swiss were showing a greater will to score the first goal of the game. However, their aggression left their defence vulnerable, which was risky. At 11:05, the Swiss managed to score. Xeno Busser sent a hard shot towards Czech goalkeeper Patrik Polivka and Flavio Schmutz deflected the puck into the net to make it 1-0 for Switzerland. In the 14th minute, Team Czech Republic had a lot of promising opportunities on the power play but the score remained unchanged.

The Czechs had a very good start to the second period. Despite that, however, the Swiss increased their lead to two on a breakaway. Polivka stopped the first shot, but Sandro Zanggera´s rebound shot was too good for him. At 26:46, the Czechs got one back. Ondrej Slovacek skated out from behind the Swiss net, seized the puck and had no trouble with scoring into the empty net. But the Czechs couldn´t get any help from their power play. In the 32nd minute, they had a 5-on-3 advantage but they couldn´t manage to score, and the second period finished 2-1.

The first minute of the last period was haunted for the home team. Team Switzerland took a 3-1 lead on a power play. Nicola Brandi scored with a wrist shot. A short time passed and Team Czech Republic got a power play as well, but with no effect. In the 52nd minute the Czechs had a power-play advantage. We got used to miserable Czech power plays in Thursday´s game, and this one was no different. They even gave up a short-handed breakaway to Flavio Schmutz, and the Swiss forward scored with a backhand move.

In the 58th minute, a big fight broke out, thereupon the referee gave out a lot of penalties. At 59:33, Czech forward Jan Hudecek brought his team within two, but that´s as close as they would come.

"Team spirit was very good today," commented Flavio Schmutz about Thursday´s win. "We didn´t focus on the result. We focused on the game and we played like a team. The Czechs underestimated us."

In an uninspiring game, Team Switzerland was better than their opponent and gained important three points. Team Czech Republic has to win over Latvians to guarantee a position in next year´s U18 championship.