World Championship: Latvia suffers, Swiss roll on

After a promising start to the tournament, Latvia suffered a horror show in Wednesday’s 1-8 loss to Germany. Switzerland remains undefeated following a comfortable 3-0 victory over Great Britain and goes top of Group A ahead of the Czechs, who downed Denmark 7-4. The other Group B ended in a 4-0 win for Slovakia over Poland.

Group A

Czech Republic 7 Denmark 4 (1-1, 2-1, 4-2)

The Czechs bounced back from a shoot-out loss against Switzerland to outscore Denmark in a lively game in Prague. The Danes slumped to a disappointing 0-2 loss against Norway in the previous game but showed better hockey here despite falling to a third defeat in four games.

Three goals in five minutes either side of the first intermission turned this one around for the host. Denmark briefly silenced the home support when Christian Wejse opened the scoring late in the first, but Jan Ritta tied it up before the break. At the start of the second, Jakub Flek and former Traktor man Lukas Sedlak gave the Czechs a 3-1 lead. Denmark hit back to tie it at 3-3 early in the third, but Tomas Kundratek, another familiar KHL player, restored the home lead and this time the Czechs finished the job.

Switzerland 3 Great Britain 0 (2-0, 1-0, 0-0)

Switzerland recorded its fourth successive victory to top group A, swatting aside a hard-working but limited British team.

The early stages were dominated by the Swiss. After 93 seconds, Kevin Fiala missed a penalty shot after Nico Hischier was fouled on his way to goal. In the fourth minute, Hischier opened the scoring with a tap-in after Roman Josi’s angled shot dropped in front of an empty net. The Swiss doubled that lead midway through the first period and could afford to ease off after that.

Britain, blanked by Finland in its previous game, desperately wanted at least a consolation goal but got little encouragement from a disciplined Swiss defense. Akira Schmid, making his first start of the tournament, saw just 15 shots through 60 minutes. At the other end, Nino Niederreiter’s power play goal in the second period kept up the Alpine avalanche of PP scoring: eight goals in four games on the Swiss PP so far.

Group B

Germany 8 Latvia 1 (2-0, 5-1, 1-0)

Latvia’s winning start in Ostrava came to an abrupt and painful halt at the hands of Germany. This was the Germans’ best ever result against Latvia, and the margin of victory was all the more surprising after the two teams collected medals a year ago in Finland.

Oskars Cibulskis felt that fatigue might have contributed to Latvia’s problems in the game. “The result wasn’t good and unfortunately it turned into a big score,” he said. “We played yesterday while they were resting, so if felt they were a little fresher.

“It’s not an excuse, but it explains the high score in a game that was so important for us. But we still have games to come and we’ll keep battling hard.”

Germany shared its scoring around, but JJ Peterka’s second-period pair led the way. Peterka was a big part of last year’s silver medal success and these were the first points for Buffalo Sabres man here.

Slovakia 4 Poland 0 (2-0, 0-0, 2-0)

The evening game in Ostrava was similar to its counterpart in Prague, with the favored team easing past newly-promoted opposition. Tomas Tatar was Slovakia’s difference-maker in a 4-0 victory over Poland.

He assisted on both of Lukas Singel’s goals and, in between, scored one himself as the Slovaks were rarely troubled. A shot count of 40-20 highlighted the gap between the teams, with Samuel Hlavaj securing a shut-out in the Slovak net.

The game was played in a lively atmosphere: Ostrava lies close to the borders with Poland and Slovakia, ensuring a big, vocal crowd for this one. But it was the Slovak support that left feeling happier after a win that moves it second in Group B.

Main photo: Andrea Branca/Eurasia Sport Images / Getty Sport / GettyImages.ru