Another big Russian win

At 15 minutes Switzerland surprisingly took the lead but Russia then got two goals before the first intermission. What sealed the deal was three unanswered Russian goals in the second period. Russia then added another two in the third to win it 7-1.

"We have to forget about this game", says Switzerland's Kevin Fiala. "We didn't skate, we just watched them play".

It was all about Russia from the start and Pavel Buchnevich had the first really good scoring chance at three minutes.

Eduard Gimatov forced Switzerland to take the first penalty of the game when he was approaching the net with high speed.

Ilya Lyubushkin almost got a goal during the power-play but the puck wouldn't cross the line and the Swiss defence could clear it.

The Russian offense lost a little power in the middle of the period and Switzerland was allowed to take some random shots from long distance.

Then, with five minutes remaining of the period the crowd couldn't believe their eyes. Switzerland's Jason Fuchs had the puck behind the net and tried to find a team-mate with a backhander. Instead the puck bounced off Vyacheslav Osnovin's stick into the Russian net for 1-0.

Seconds later Switzerland was close to 2-0, but it was Russia who scored the next goal. Also this an own goal. After some brilliant stick-handling Ivan Barbashyov's shot took a high angle in the air and bounced off the back of Swiss goalie Sascha Rochow's back into the net.

Shortly afterwards Russia got a power-play and it didn't take long for them to score 2-1. Andrei Mironov scored on a deflection.

The Swiss team opened the second period with a hole bunch of scoring chances from close range but Vasilevsky in the Russian net stopped them all.

"We have to play a lot better in the defensive zone", says Russia's Ivan Barbashyov.

Russia got a power-play after a high Swiss stick and nobody tried to stop Bogdan Yakimov when he started off with the puck from the own blue-line and approached the Swiss net. He fired a shot from the left circle and scored 3-1.

Yakimov got a goal tonight

Switzerland got a power-play in the middle of the period but when Russia returned to full strenght Alexander Barabanov immediately scored 4-1.

Russian goal number five followed just a half minute later when Damir Zhafyarov scored on a quick Russian attack.

Team Switzerland never stopped trying attacking even if the period didn't go their way. They actually outshot Russia 13-10 in the second period but lost it 0-3.

The third period was not very well played from either side. The team exchanged poor odd man rushes and there were no organized attacks.

At 47:07 Switzerland's Anthony Rouiller was sent off 2+2 minutes for a high stick. Vyacheslav Osnovin used the first penalty with an individual effort to make it 6-1.

After another Swiss penalty Russia got to play 5-on-3 and Russia needed only 17 seconds to make it 7-1. Mikhail Grigorenko scored on an opening pass from Buchnevich.

Russia has easily won the first two games but now awaits two harder ones; against Finland on Monday and Sweden on Tuesday.

Switzerland's key game to avoid relegation games will be the one against Norway on Monday.

"We have to win", says Fiala. "We'll practise tomorrow and then we'll see what happens."

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