In another day of action at the 2021 IIHF World Hockey Championship, Switzerland defeated Belarus, 6-0; Canada also blew out Italy, 7-1; Sweden took out Slovakia, 3-1 and Finland edged Latvia 3-2 in overtime.
In the Switzerland-Belarus game, Yegor Sharangovich had two shots on goal in 20:44 of ice time for Belarus, Nico Hischier had an assist for a point and five shots on net in 18:47 of total ice and Jonas Siegenthaler had two penalty minutes in 19:50 of time on ice.
The Swiss got things kicked off just 36 seconds into the game when Christoph Bertschy scored from Fabrice Herzog and Tristan Scherwey. That made it 1-0 Switzerland early in the blowout.
At 6:15 of the first, Siegenthaler took a holding penalty, but that was killed off by the Swiss PK.
The Swiss would get one more later in the first when Joel Vermin scored from Timo Meier at 18:01. That made it 2-0 Switzerland heading into the second.
Again, the Swiss would notch one early in a period when Sven Andrighetto got one from Vermin just 1:09 into the second. That made it 3-0.
Following that goal, Belarus would pull goalie Konstantin Shostak in favor of Alexi Kolosov. Both goalies would end up giving up three goals.
At 12:15, Gregory Hofmann added a fourth Swiss goal from Enzo Corvi.
Then things got a little out of hand for the officials. It began at 13:57 when Switzerland’s Philipp Kurashev took a two-minute hitting from behind penalty to go with a ten-minute misconduct. A few minutes later, at 18:46, Nikita Komarov of Belarus received a two-minute boarding penalty and a ten-minute misconduct. The second period ended with Yevgeni Lisovets (Belarus) and Meier (Switzerland) getting matching roughing minors at 19:40.
The second saw Vermin add another goal at 12:03 from Meier to make it 5-0.
At 16:20, Switzerland’s Ramon Untersander took a hooking minor, putting the Swiss on the penalty kill. That did not stop the Swiss onslaught, however, as Herzog scored at 17:43 from Hischier to make it 6-0, our final.
The Swiss now leapfrog Russia and Slovakia into first place in Group A on goal differential (plus-seven). Belarus falls to last place in the Group.
Now on to another game of importance to both Group A and Devils’ fans. Slovakia lost 3-1 to Sweden.
Marian Studenic had two shots on goal in 16:24 of ice time.
The Slovaks got on the board first, breaking the seal on the game with less than a minute to go in the first period when Peter Cehlarik scored unassisted to make it 1-0.
In the second period, Cehlarik took a holding the stick penalty at 8:07. Just seconds after that penalty was killed off, at 10:15, Marcus Sorensen scored for the Swedes to tie the game at one. He got an assist from Max Friberg.
The Swedes would take the lead on the power play in the third period when Adam Janosik took an interference penalty at 10:06. At 11:38, Victor Olofsson scored from Henrik Tommernes to give Sweden their first lead of the evening, 2-1.
The Swedes would get a little undisciplined late in the third when Magnus Nygren took a slashing call at 15:57. Just about one minute after Sweden killed that penalty, at 18:56, Jesper Froden took a tripping call to put Slovakia back on the power play.
The Slovaks would pull goaltender Adam Huska to get a 6-on-4 advantage, but Sweden’s Isac Lundestrom would instead pot an empty net goal from Filip Hallander to seal the Swede’s 3-1 victory.
Slovakia now stands in third place in Group A with that loss. Sweden is a spot behind them at fourth place (both in medal round position). The Slovaks currently have 12 points (tied with Russia and Switzerland) while the Swedes have nine points.
Tomorrow features Group A action between Denmark and the Czech Republic and Russia and Sweden at the Olympic Sports Centre while in Group B at Arena Riga, Norway takes on Kazakhstan and, of importance to us, the United States takes on Germany.