SWITZERLAND STAYS IN RACE
SWISS TEAM TO REMATCH AMERICA AFTER OVERTIME WIN OVER BELARUS
After Switzerland beat Belarus, 3-2, in a shootout Tuesday, the Swiss quickly turned their attention to a quarterfinal match against the United States on Wednesday. “We’re going to have to play perfect,” Switzerland forward Hnat Domenichelli said, looking ahead to the rematch of last week’s tough 3-1 American victory. The Swiss goalie Jonas Hiller, who stopped 20 shots and then two shooters in the shootout, said: “We have shown that we can play with the Americans. We’re going to have to play the same way against them.” In a later match Canada overwhelmed Germany, 8-2, to advance to a quarterfinal meeting with Russia on Wednesday. Belarus’s loss was a cruel way to go out of the tournament. After 60 minutes of regulation and 10 minutes of overtime, the first two Swiss shooters, Thomas Deruns and Romano Lemm, beat Belarus goalie Andrei Mezin, who stopped 40 shots. Dmitri Meleshko got one back by scoring on Hiller. But when Hiller stopped Sergei Kostitsyn on the final shot, Switzerland went through to the quarterfinals. Domenichelli laid out tactical pointers for his team against the United States. “We’ll need three guys back every time,” he said. “The first 10 or 15 minutes, they’re going to try to push us out of the rink. I’m going to encourage our guys to fight and hang in there.” (NY Times)