The Swiss national team achieved their fourth win in four games at the Ice Hockey World Championships with a 5:3 win over Slovakia. Switzerland convinces with a very strong boxing game – and so far they can rely on the magnificent performances of top performers Denis Malgin and Jonas Siegenthaler.
Unstoppable at the moment: Denis Malgin and Jonas Siegenthaler at the World Championships in Helsinki.
Switzerland was warned: Slovakia had been the surprise team at the Olympic Games in Beijing alongside tournament winner Finland. Out of nowhere, the Slovaks won bronze with a very young team, thanks to a 4-0 win over Sweden. In China, for example, Juraj Slafkovsky’s star rose to become top scorer with seven goals in seven games. Slafkovsky, 18, will be selected as one of the first ten players in the NHL draft in Montreal at the beginning of July – the scouts also crowded the stands in Helsinki on Thursday to make sure that they were being evaluated by the nearly 100-kilo Power – Wing nothing escapes.
Slafkovsky, who has been training at TPS Turku in Finland for three years, scored his first World Cup goal against Switzerland, but he was unable to prevent Switzerland from being harmed in the fourth round match. And, that’s the reward, leading Group A without a loss.
The performance, like that of Wednesday’s narrow 3-2 win over Kazakhstan, was not particularly glamorous. Above all, coach Patrick Fischer’s team lacked discipline, they incurred nine two-minute penalties, including two for too many players on the ice. Six and a half minutes from time, Ambri defender Michael Fora was sent to the shower with a five-minute penalty. For 120 seconds the team even had to fight back when they were twice outnumbered.
The self-promotion of Denis Malgin
But the boxplay formed and coached by the Swedish assistant trainer Tommy Albelin worked brilliantly – the Swiss didn’t allow a hit, on the contrary: After Christoph Bertschy had triggered the first game with a leg up after 20 seconds, Denis Malgin scored half a minute later with a shorthander first Swiss tour. Malgin, 25, the figurehead of the ZSC Lions, is the best Swiss scorer to date with four goals and four assists – and that in a team that includes Nico Hischier and Timo Meier belong to seasoned, highly productive NHL forwards. The previous opponents Italy, Denmark, Kazakhstan and Slovakia, who competed with only one NHL professional, may not be the ultimate indicator in their checksum. Yet Malgin’s achievements on this stage will not go unnoticed; there’s something so compelling about him in his current state that his chances of an NHL offer should increase. Chuck Fletcher, the general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers, had already told the “NZZ am Sonntag” at the weekend that he considered Malgin a “dynamic player”. Malgin’s NHL rights are currently with the Toronto Maple Leafs, who, however, no longer seem to plan with him. His contract with ZSC runs until 2025, but he can leave the club in the summer due to the transfer agreement with the NHL.
Jonas Siegenthaler also shines
Next to Malgin is the defender Jonas Siegenthaler, another international trained in the ZSC organization, so far one of the revelations of the tournament. Siegenthaler, 25, continues his excellent NHL season with the New Jersey Devils in Helsinki. He brings a component that Switzerland has almost traditionally lacked: physique. Against Slovakia he sent a powerful signal early on with a cracking check against the young center Jakub Minarik. In addition to Malgin, defender Dominik Egli and Fabrice Herzog, Hischier and Meier scored the goals for the new victory on the offensive.
After twelve points and four games within five days, the Swiss can now rest before the duel for the presumed group victory with Canada on Saturday. The comparison with the world number 2 is the first big test for the Swiss, after they have done their duties satisfactorily so far. He shouldn’t be underestimated, because on the way to the semi-finals they are striving for with vehemence, the team shouldn’t be able to avoid getting rid of an opponent of a certain caliber. The situation in Group B is still unclear, but it could be the Czech Republic or the USA.