On Tuesday evening at 20:20, Switzerland will face Finland in the last preliminary round game at the home World Championship. The winner will finish first in Group A.
26.05.2026, 04:45
26.05.2026, 14:05
SDA
Both Switzerland and Finland have impressed so far at this tournament and are the only unbeaten teams apart from Canada. While the hosts have a goal difference of 35:5 after six games, the Finns are also extremely stable at 29:7. With a success rate of 36.36 percent, the northerners are currently second in the powerplay statistics at this World Championship, just behind Switzerland (36.84), while in the box score they are even ahead of the locals (92.31) with 92.86 percent.
The Finns can count on no fewer than 13 reinforcements from North America, including Aleksander Barkov, who captained the Florida Panthers to two Stanley Cup titles. However, the internal scoring list is not led by one of the NHL players, but by Jesse Puljujärvi, who has four goals and four assists. The Genève-Servette forward is one of eight players from the National League in the Finnish squad.
Another is defenseman Ville Saarijärvi, who also plays for Genève-Servette. He says of the showdown against Switzerland: "We have to be aware of their strengths and take away their time and space. We can't lose the puck in unfavorable places, so we have to finish our moves in the offensive zone very smartly. We can't lose the puck in the neutral zone to give them easy attacks and we have to play hard in the defensive zone."
The Swiss won the last World Championship duel two years ago in Prague 3:1. In their most recent serious match at the Winter Games in Milan, however, they were beaten 2:3 after extra time in the quarter-finals after leading 2:0 until the 54th minute. The sting was deep - so a successful revenge in front of the home fans would be all the better.
