In an incredible upset, Switzerland defeated Finland 3-2 today in the IIHF World Championship quarter-finals. Finland was the top seed in the tournament after handing both the USA and Canada losses during the group stage, but lost to the upstart Swiss squad that had received reinforcements like Roman Josi in recent days. Switzerland will have to take on Canada, who outlasted Russia and scored in overtime on the powerplay.
In the other semi-final, Team USA will meet Sweden in a clash of tournament powerhouses after they dispatched the Czech Republic and Latvia earlier today. That game will feature a matchup of some of the tournament’s best forwards in Patrick Kane and Cam Atkinson taking on Sweden’s tough defensive unit that includes Oliver Ekman-Larsson, John Klingberg, Hampus Lindholm, Adam Larsson and Mattias Ekholm.
The schedule for Saturday is as follows:
- USA (7-1-0) vs Sweden (8-0-0) – 8:15am
- Switzerland (5-2-1) vs Canada (6-1-1) – 12:15am
(times in CT)
While international tournaments may have no bearing on Stanley Cup results, these tournaments are huge moments in a player’s career. For teenaged skaters like Tyson Jost, Pierre-Luc Dubois or Quinn Hughes, it’s a chance to really show what you can do against the best players in the world.
The gold medal and bronze medal games will be held on Sunday, May 20th.
Sweden was the #1 team in the prelims. They had 20 points, which was 4 more than any other team in the preliminary round. While Finland did beat Canada & the US in their group, they also lost to Denmark in regulation & to Germany in overtime. The Finns were very inconsistent in the group stage. The played well against the big teams, but against the lesser teams, they struggled. When looking at it from that angle, it isn’t really shocking that Switzerland beat Finland