- Pius Suter and Sven Andrighetto each scored a goal and added an assist
- Joseph Woll stopped 17 of 20 in a rematch of last year’s gold medal final
- Read below for full details on Switzerland’s 3-1 upset of Team USA in Zurich
Switzerland kicked off its home World Championship by flipping the script on the United States.
The hosts beat defending champion USA 3-1 on Friday in Zurich, reversing the result of last May’s gold medal final. Pius Suter and Sven Andrighetto each had a goal and an assist, and goaltender Leonardo Genoni stopped 19 of 20 shots in front of a roaring crowd at Swiss Life Arena.
Suter wasted no time. Just 2:03 into the game, Andrighetto fired one from the doorstep that was deflected, and Suter swept the loose puck across the line on his backhand.
Andrighetto then made it 2-0 at 11:19 of the first, wristing home a feed from Denis Malgin past Joseph Woll from the left half-wall.
Watch the highlights:
Team USA didn’t break through until late in the third. Alex Steeves fired a shot wide left, only for the puck to ricochet off the boards back onto his stick. He buried it from the left circle at 8:45 of the third to cut the lead in half, with Ryan Lindgren and Will Borgen picking up the helpers.
Minutes later, Ken Jager deflected a Simon Knak point shot home with 3:39 to play to push the Swiss lead back to two.
Woll finished with 17 saves on 20 shots for Team USA, which came in fresh off a 5-2 pre-tournament win over Germany. Both sides finished with 20 shots and went 0-for-1 on the power play. Justin Faulk was named U.S. Player of the Game.
Head coach Don Granato wasn’t sounding any alarms after the loss. He was asked about his team’s effort:
“What a great atmosphere tonight and a lot of positive takeaways, competing for each other and playing as a team. Every game is a build and we can take a lot out of this game as we move forward.”
The Americans rolled out a much different roster than they did a year ago. Only Mason Lohrei and Isaac Howard return from last spring’s championship squad. They go again Sunday morning against tournament newcomer Great Britain at 6:20 a.m. ET on NHL Network.
USA Hockey had hyped the gold-medal rematch earlier in the day:
