Switzerland also won their fourth game at the Ice Hockey World Championships in Finland and Latvia, but lost the clean sheet. In the 4:2 (1:0, 1:2, 2:0) against Slovakia, the team around NHL striker Nino Niederreiter conceded the first goals of the tournament. With twelve points, Switzerland leads Group B ahead of record world champions Canada.
Jonas Siegenthaler of the New Jersey Devils (6th), Niederreiter of the Winnipeg Jets (25th), Christian Marti (47th) and Gatean Haas (60th) put their team ahead before Andrej Kudrna (26th) and Pavol Anaheim Ducks’ Regenda (40′) scored for Slovakia. Switzerland had won the first three games against Kazakhstan (5-0), Norway (3-0) and Slovenia (7-0).
The climber missed a sensation on Thursday. The Slovenians led 2:1 against the twelve-time world champion Czech Republic until the last third, but still lost 2:6 (2:0, 0:1, 0:5) and are still last without a point in group B of the preliminary round. Hungary was also promoted in the 1:7 (1:3, 0:3, 0:1) against Sweden in Group A they had no chance.
Bremerhaven’s Miha Verlic (8th) and Jan Urbas (12th) gave the underdogs from Slovakia a surprising lead, but NHL striker Dominik Kubalik (39th, 44th, 58th), Roman Cervenka (45th), Michal Kempny (52nd) and Jakub Flek (59th) turned the game around.