An easy victory for Switzerland

27 Dec 2012 | Didzis Rudmanis

The Swiss U20 has started their World Junior Championship with a comfortable 7:2 over Latvians, for whom this was already the second, yet the most humiliating, loss of the tournament. Mike Kunzle scored two goals for the Swiss, with Tanner Richard finishing the game with three assists.

The scoring opened already in the third minute of the game, with Nikolajs Jeļisejevs scoring a powerplay goal and giving Latvia an early 1:0 lead. Swiss clearly had the edge of the game, and finally, in the fifteenth minute of the period, Christoph Bertschy attempted a shot on net and was first to put the rebound of his shot in the net, making it 1:1. Late in the first Mike Kunzle gave Swiss a 2:1 lead.

Ealry in the second Lukas Balmelli made it 3:1 already and it seemed that might have sealed the fate of the game, still, only a minute later Artūrs Ševčenko scored the second goal for Latvians. Already on the second half of the period Swiss managed to score a shorthanded goal, with Sven Andrighetto putting it past Latvian goalie Elvis Merzļikins. Period ended 5:2, as Sandro Zangger managed to score another goal.

In the third period it was evident that both teams were saving energy for the upcoming games, Ivars Punnenovs took over Elvis Merzļikins in Latvian net, yet Swiss managed to score two more goals, with Mike Kunzle and Alessio Bertaggia finishing it 7:2.

This was a rather decisive game, with both teams being favourites for playing in the relegation round. Both teams had faced each other three times at an elite WJC tournament, with Latvians losing all three of the games.