🇨🇭 Switzerland 3-0 Norway 🇳🇴
World Championship Preliminary Round
Arēna Rīga, Rīga 🇱🇻
Sunday, 14 May 2023

For the first time since 1939, Switzerland has opened the IIHF World Championship with back-to-back shutouts following a 3-0 win over Norway.

Yesterday, it was veteran Leonardo Genoni who shut out Slovenia. In this game, Robert Mayer made 14 saves – all but two of them in the last 33 minutes of the game. Switzerland outshot Norway 26-14 in the game, with Jonas Arntzen stopping all but two in his first game of the tournament.

Dario Simion and Andrea Glauser scored the goals in the first period, with Marco Miranda drawing the primary assist on both, before the Swiss locked the game down.

The Swiss were utterly dominant in the first period, outshooting Norway 14-1 and taking a 2-0 lead.

Simion opened the scoring at 8:13, taking a pass from Miranda in the high slot and firing a wrister between Arntzen’s legs.

Late in the opening period, it appeared that the Swiss had scored for the second time courtesy of Janis Moser, but Norway challenged the play for goaltender interference and the officials agreed, as Andres Ambühl’s skate contacted Amtzen’s left leg as he was sliding to his left, slowing the goalie’s momentum.

At that point, it looked like Norway might get out of a first period that they had been significantly outplayed down by just a goal. However, the Swiss scored again off the rush with 32 seconds left in the period, with Miranda’s backhand pass finding Glauser, who chipped it over Amtzen’s glove from in close.

The first half of the second period was pretty much the same story as the first. However, three straight Swiss penalties, including 30 seconds of 5-on-3 time, gave Mayer some work to do. The Norwegians didn’t score, however, and their best scoring chance came at 5-on-5 in the last minute of the period off the stick of Ludvig Hoff, which Mayer was lucky to deflect away with the tip of his blocker.

The Norwegians got another great chance in the first minute of the third period when the puck was given away to Matthias Trettenes, who misfired.

After that, the Swiss did a good job of locking down the final period. In fact, the shots in the last 20 minutes were 5-2 for Switzerland. Nino Niederreiter locked the game down with an empty-net goal with 2:18 remaining.

The regulation win pulls Switzerland even with Canada atop Group B with six points each, while Norway stays on one following yesterday’s shootout loss to Kazakhstan. Both teams have tomorrow off and are back in action on Tuesday.

BOXSCORE
1st Period
08:13 – 🇨🇭 GOAL – Simion (Miranda, Glauser)
12:19 – 🇨🇭 PEN – Malgin, interference
19:28 – 🇨🇭 GOAL – Glauser (Miranda, Simion)

2nd Period
23:53 – 🇳🇴 PEN – Kåsastul, high sticking
27:21 – 🇨🇭 PEN – Geisser, hooking
33:17 – 🇨🇭 PEN – Fora, high sticking
34:47 – 🇨🇭 PEN – Herzog, tripping
39:52 – 🇳🇴 PEN – Nørstebø, holding

3rd Period
44:09 – 🇳🇴 PEN – Lilleberg, holding
48:05 – 🇨🇭 PEN – Moser, high sticking
57:46 – 🇨🇭 EN GOAL – Neiderreiter (Bertschy, Richard)
59:52 – 🇨🇭 PEN – Kukan, roughing
59:52 – 🇳🇴 PEN – Krogdahl, roughing
59:52 – 🇨🇭 PEN – Richard, roughing
59:52 – 🇳🇴 PEN – Martinsen, roughing

GOALTENDERS
W: 🇨🇭 Mayer (14-14)
L: 🇳🇴 Arntzen (23-25)

SHOTS ON GOAL
🇨🇭 12+9+5 = 26
🇳🇴 1+11+2 = 14

ROSTERS
🇨🇭 Goaltenders: Leonardo Genoni, Robert Mayer. Defence: Michael Fora, Tobias Geisser, Andrea Glauser, Dean Kukan, Romain Loeffel, Christian Marti (A), Janis Moser. Forwards: Andres Ambühl (A), Christoph Bertschy, Enzo Corvi, Gaëtan Haas, Fabrice Herzog, Denis Malgin, Marco Miranda, Nino Niederreiter (C), Tanner Richard, Sven Senteler, Dario Simion, Calvin Thürkauf.
🇳🇴 Goaltenders: Jonas Arntzen, Henrik Haukeland. Defence: Ole Julian Bjørgvik-Holm, Isak Hansen, Johannes Johannesen (A), Max Krogdahl, Christian Kåsastul, Emil Lilleberg, Mattias Nørstebø. Forwards: Thomas Berg-Paulsen, Philip Granath, Michael Haga, Ludvig Hoff, Andreas Martinsen, Sondre Olden, Ken André Olimb (C), Thomas Olsen, Eirik Salsten, Håvard Østrem Salsten, Mathias Trettenes (A), Petter Vesterheim, Markus Vikingstad.

Article Credit: IIHF Worlds 2023
Photo Credit: IIHF Worlds 2023 – IIHF – HHOF – IOC