Switzerland will take to the ice as favorites in their clash with Germany on Monday evening at 20:20. The positive series is to be continued at the home World Championship.
18.05.2026, 04:30
18.05.2026, 08:05
SDA
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- On Monday evening, Switzerland will face Germany at the home World Championships.
- While the Swiss have won their first two games, the Germans have started the tournament with two defeats.
- In the event of another defeat, Germany is in danger of missing out on the quarter-finals.
Germany has already inflicted several bitter defeats on Switzerland in ice hockey. At the 2010, 2021 and 2023 World Championships, the arch-rivals won in the quarter-finals, while at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang they ended the SIHF team's hopes in the round of 16. However, the Swiss have won twice recently: two years ago, they ended their "quarter-final curse" with a 3:1 win in Ostrava.
The positive series is now set to continue in Zurich. The Swiss, who have started with two victories, are favored, all the more so as the Germans are without four NHL players in Leon Draisaitl, Tim Stützle, J.J. Peterka and Nico Sturm. Long-time captain Moritz Müller is also missing.
The undisputed team leader is Moritz Seider, who plays for the Detroit Red Wings and was named the NHL's best rookie in 2022. The 25-year-old is not only strong defensively, he also has offensive qualities. In the last NHL season, he scored ten goals and 50 assists in 82 games. He also had the best plus-minus record (+15) with Detroit.
In addition to Seider, goalie Philipp Grubauer, Lukas Reichel and Joshua Samanski strengthen the team from North America. However, the latter two have not been fixtures in the NHL this season, with Samanski even having to play in the AHL most of the time.
Harold Kreis is counting on five World Championship debutants, partly because of the many withdrawals. The 67-year-old, who won the Swiss championship title as coach with both Lugano (2006) and the ZSC Lions (2008), has been head coach of the Germans since March 2023 and led them to a silver medal in his first World Championship in this role. A year ago, however, they were eliminated in the preliminary round, and the team went down to a 6-2 defeat in the quarter-finals against Slovakia at the Olympic Games in Milan.
Germany has already lost two games
Nevertheless, Kreis does not feel any great pressure. When would it be a good tournament for him? "When I feel I've gotten the potential out of the team. When the tank is empty." So far, the World Cup has been disappointing for the Germans. The defeat against Finland (1:3) at the start was not unexpected, but the key game against Latvia on Sunday evening was lost 2:0. As a result, the team is once again in danger of missing out on a place in the quarter-finals, which is unlikely to make things any easier for Switzerland.
