🇨🇭 Switzerland 9-0 Hungary 🇭🇺
World Championship Preliminary Round
Swiss Life Arena, Zürich 🇨🇭
Saturday, 23 May 2026

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in Zürich, do as Roman Josi does.

Switzerland’s captain scored a hat-trick as the host nation rolled to another comfortable victory. Along the way, Josi moves to 53 (16+37) points from his 70 World Championship games, moving in front of Alexei Kasatonov to become the third most productive defender of all time.

Teammate Christoph Bertschy admitted it’s sometimes hard to keep up with a talent like Josi. “If you watch him play, you sometimes feel like, ‘Is he playing the same game as we are?’ It’s crazy how he finds space where no space is, how he reads the game, how he knows where his teammates are. Even in tight situations where other players will just get rid of it and try not to have a turnover, he finds the right play. It’s great to watch. It’s even better to play with him. So happy he’s on our team!”

Josi completed his hat-trick in 4:45, beating the previous record of 6:35 set by Shane Doan of Canada in 2007.

“Oh, that’s a nice record,” said Andrighetto. “Obviously, he’s one of the best players in the (NHL), in the world, and we’re obviously glad that he’s Swiss. He’s a big leader, great player, even better person. It’s awesome to play alongside him.”

Hungary was the latest Swiss victim. After a hard-working opening frame restricted Switzerland to a single goal, Hungary was blown away by six unanswered goals in the second. Timo Meier, Denis Malgin (2), Calvin Thürkauf, Sven Andrighetto and Simon Knak joined Josi among the goals.

Andrighetto finished the game with 5 (1+4) points, moving to a personal best 13 for the tournament and opening a three-point lead over Malgin in the tournament scoring race.

At the other end, record-breaking goalie Leonardo Genoni completed his 14th World Championship shut-out as he backstopped his second successive 9-0 game. The best of his 10 saves was probably the last, denying Márton Nemes a late consolation.

Josi made the initial breakthrough in this game late in the first period. The Swiss, as expected, controlled the game from the off. But Hungary dug deep, goalie Ádám Vay came up big and the bench did well to spot an offside and successfully challenge Nino Niederreiter’s 14th-minute attempt.

But on 18:09, sublime stickhandling brought the Nashville blue-liner deep into Magyar territory. When a defender committed himself and stumbled, Josi did not break stride before toe-dragging to create a shooting lane and firing past Vay.

It took just 29 seconds of the middle frame to double the Swiss lead: this Josi took the puck off Balázs Sebők just outside the blue line and advanced to finish it off himself. Hungary then got the first power play of the game, but soon gave up a penalty of its own and when Switzerland got a mini-PP, Josi converted to make it 3-0 on 22:54.

“It’s not easy when one of their best players decides to score three goals within the first 20 or 25 minutes of the game,” said Hungary’s István Terbócs. “We gave them a couple easy chances, and you know if we give up easy chances versus the top teams, they’re gonna take them without any question.”

Switzerland has been devastating in second period play at the 2026 IIHF World Championship. Today it went on to score six in the middle frame, taking its tournament tally to 18 out of 35 goals in total. Meier made it 4-0 just after the half-hour, then Malgin scored off an Andrighetto assist.

That chased Vay from his net, with Bence Bálizs coming into the game on 33:07. But he was beaten a couple of minutes later when Malgin and Andrighetto combined as Thürkauf became the 15th Swiss player to score at this tournament. Then Andrighetto struck on a delayed penalty in the last minute of the frame, delighting the noisy home crowd as the Swiss Life Arena.

“The second periods are always hard against these top teams,” added Terbócs. “You can’t change, you get stuck in the D-zone. So that kind of burned our energy. We were tired. I think we had a tough game yesterday, and we were a little bit out of energy the whole game.”

Midway through the third period, Switzerland had the puck in the net for an eighth time. But that effort was ruled out due to goalie interference after Bertschy strayed onto the paint before the shot came in.

Hungary’s luck was out as Malgin made it 8-0 in the 53rd minute. The Swiss forward was looking for a centring pass out of the corner, but a bounce off a Hungarian skate took it inside Bálizs’ near post.

And there was more to come: despite a suspicion of offside, Josi set up Knak for a ninth goal as Switzerland’s party continues.

The tournament host improves to six wins from six and concludes the preliminary round on Tuesday with a showdown for top spot versus Finland. Hungary remains seventh on three points, with games against Team USA on Monday and Latvia on Tuesday.

BOXSCORE
1st Period
18:09 – 🇨🇭 GOAL – Josi (Jäger, Riat)

2nd Period
20:29 – 🇨🇭 GOAL – Josi
20:34 – 🇨🇭 PEN – Thürkauf, roughing
21:20 – 🇭🇺 PEN – Stipsicz, hooking
22:54 – 🇨🇭 PP GOAL – Josi (Hischier, Andrighetto)
31:37 – 🇨🇭 GOAL – Meier (Moser)
33:07 – 🇨🇭 GOAL – Malgin (Thürkauf, Andrighetto)
35:48 – 🇨🇭 GOAL – Thürkauf (Andrighetto, Malgin)
39:04 – 🇭🇺 PEN – Vincze, hooking
39:04 – 🇨🇭 GOAL – Andrighetto (Moser, Berni)
39:24 – 🇭🇺 PEN – Sárpátki, hooking
39:37 – 🇨🇭 PEN – Rochette, hooking

3rd Period
42:25 – 🇭🇺 PEN – Papp, hooking
52:58 – 🇨🇭 GOAL – Malgin (Thürkauf, Andrighetto)
55:09 – 🇨🇭 GOAL – Knak (Josi)

GOALTENDERS
W: 🇨🇭 Genoni (10-10)
L: 🇭🇺 Vay (20-25), Bálizs (19-23)

SHOTS ON GOAL
🇨🇭 13+20+15 = 48
🇭🇺 4+2+4 = 10

ROSTERS
🇨🇭 Goaltenders: Reto Berra, Leonardo Genoni. Defence: Tim Berni, Dominik Egli, Roman Josi (C), Sven Jung, Dean Kukan, Christian Marti, Janis Moser. Forwards: Sven Andrighetto (A), Nicolas Baechler, Christoph Bertschy, Attilio Biasca, Nico Hischier (A), Ken Jäger, Simon Knak, Denis Malgin, Timo Meier, Nino Niederreiter, Damien Riat, Théo Rochette, Calvin Thürkauf.
🇭🇺 Goaltenders: Bence Bálizs, Ádám Vay. Defence: Zsombor Garát, Zétény Hadobás, Milán Horváth, Roland Kiss, Tamás Ortenszky, Bence Stipsicz, Gábor Tornyai. Forwards: Csanád Erdély (C), János Hári (A), Bence Horváth, Krisztián Nagy, Márton Nemes, Kristóf Papp, Csanád Ravasz, Tamás Sárpátki, Balázs Sebők, István Sofron, Domán Szongoth, István Terbócs (A), Péter Vincze.

Article Credit: IIHF Worlds 2026
Photo Credit: IIHF Worlds 2026 – IIHF – HHOF – IOC