Switzerland beats Slovakia after wild shootout at World Junior Championship

It took extra time, but Switzerland managed to erase a 3-1 deficit to win 4-3 over Slovakia in a wild shootout to close out Group B play.

With the loss, Slovakia can not win Group B and can only finish as high as second. Finland and USA will play for the top spot in the group later tonight in Moncton. Switzerland will finish fourth and play the top seed in Group A.

The Slovaks had a few dangerous chances early in the game, and at 4:11, they broke the deadlock. After New York Rangers prospect Adam Sykora was stopped initially, he had a few poke-check opportunities before he eventually pushed it past Kevin Pasche to give his team the lead.

Switzerland needed an early goal in the second to change the momentum, and they got it. At 21:07, Liekit Reichle’s wrist shot from the hashmarks proved to be too much for Slovakian goaltender Adam Gajan to handle and made it 1-1.

The game remained that way until 37:20. Libor Nemec made a great move around a Swiss defender to set up Servac Petrovsky in close, with the Minnesota Wild forward making no mistake. On the very next shift, Petrovsky struck again, with Nemec and Filip Mesar both grabbing their second assists of the day.

Once again, the Swiss needed to generate something on the scoresheet. At 42:20, Mischa Ramel scored just seconds after his goaltender Pasche made a big glove stop, going the other way and beating Gajan for the 3-2 goal.

Switzerland kept the pressure up, and they capitalized at 48:40 on the power play. This time, Louis Robin and Attilio Biasca did the work to get the puck into a scoring lane, and Lorenzo Canonica slammed home the pass to make it 3-3.

The game required a shootout, spicing up the Group B standings even further. It took 10 rounds for someone to secure the victory, with Rodwin Dioncio scoring after poking the puck between Adam Gajan’s legs for the 4-3 goal.