- Switzerland easily beat Slovenia 7-0 at the start of the Ice Hockey World Championships in Riga.
- The Nati scored four of the seven goals with a majority.
- With two goals and an assist, Denis Malgin stands out from the convincing team.
An (almost) perfect majority game, a shutout for goalkeeper Leonardo Genoni and three points: Switzerland made the start of the World Cup a success. Against promoted Slovenia, the Nati showed a calm performance from A to Z and brought in a victory that was never in danger.
Christoph Bertschy scored the end of a one-sided game worth seeing in the 58th minute. The Freiburg striker skilfully let Slovenia’s goalkeeper Gasper Kroselj get out and scored to make it 7-0.
Perfect overpayment game
Switzerland needed almost 13 minutes to live up to their role as favourites. After Patrick Fischer’s team didn’t know what to do with the many possessions in the starting phase, the first majority situation of the game caused the icebreaker.
Switzerland needed just 10 seconds to score the opening goal. Colorado striker Denis Malgin scored a one-timer to make it 1-0 on the assist of Dean Kukan. Only 33 seconds later it became clear that the NHL reinforcements can play a decisive role in this World Cup. Janis Moser made it 2-0 with a well-placed shot into the high corner.
Niederreiter crowns comeback
A player who earns his money in North America was also worried about the third Swiss goal. Captain Nino Niederreiter, who appeared in a Swiss outfit for the first time since the 2019 World Cup, proved his nose for goals in the 33rd minute. A shot from Malgin outnumbered by the Churer decisively steered the 3:0 into the net.
With a majority, the Fischer team performed impressively on Saturday anyway. The third and fourth power play situations in this party also resulted in a goal. First Malgin made it 4-0 with his second personal goal (42nd), before another National League player, Thürkauf, was able to add his name to the scorer list (44th). The Lugano striker, who had previously missed two top-class players, crowned his strong performance.
After 50 minutes, Switzerland let a majority situation pass unused for the first time in this game. Marco Miranda quickly ironed out the blemish. The 24-year-old completed a Geneva championship combination – the template came from Servette teammate Tanner Richard – with his first World Cup goal to make it 6-0.
Here’s how to proceed
The next game for Switzerland is already on Sunday. The Nati is also clearly to be favored against Norway. The puck is thrown in at 3:20 p.m., the live broadcast on SRF Zwei starts at 3:00 p.m.