SWITZERLAND 2
SWEDEN 0
Everybody knew there would be four hockey teams on ferries this morning headed from Swartz Bay to Vancouver. Two would be going to Rogers Arena for the semifinals of the 2019 IIHF world junior championship and two to YVR for the trip home.
Nobody thought previously undefeated Sweden would be one of the teams destined for the airport. But the Pool B champions were toppled by Pool A fourth-seed Switzerland 2-0 Wednesday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre to kick-start a day of stunning quarter-final upsets in Victoria and Vancouver.
It proved again that the cross-over quarter-final is the most perilous game for the favourites in any international world championship in any sport. Pool records suddenly mean nothing in a one-game playoff.
For the upstarts, however, the feeling is unimaginable as the Swiss skaters jumped into the crease area and mobbed their shutout-hero goaltender, Luca Hollenstein, at the final buzzer. Hollenstein stopped 41 stops.
Following the post-game ceremonies, the Swiss players led the Island crowd in the Icelandic national soccer team/Minnesota Vikings Skol/thunder hand clap while Don鈥檛 Stop Believing by Journey played on the Memorial Centre PA in a dizzying cross-cultural mishmash.
And if Finland thinks it has a soft touch now in the semifinals, think again. These Swiss players, making their nation鈥檚 first medal-round appearance in nine years and looking for the first Swiss medal since bronze in 1998, do believe.
鈥淚t鈥檚 great. We know we have a really good team and can beat anybody, and now we did it against a big team [Sweden],鈥� said Swiss captain Nando Eggenberger.
鈥淲e can also beat sa国际传媒,鈥� added Eggenberger, before the results of the shocking Canadian quarter-final loss to Finland at Rogers Arena were known.
鈥淲e have a lot of confidence. It was not a perfect game today [against Sweden], but it was almost perfect.鈥�
The fans on Blanshard knew a good underdog story when they saw one.
鈥淭he crowd was behind us and that was very nice,鈥� Eggenberger said.
The Swedes, with a roster full of first-round NHL draft picks and AHL players and followed by a large press and broadcast contingent, were crestfallen.
Sweden is 48-0 in pool play dating to 2006, but the playoff round has proved a difficult beast for the Swedes to slay, with only one gold medal and five silvers to show for that run.
鈥淲e鈥檙e a great team and we played great in the group 鈥� but maybe not in this [quarter-final] game,鈥� said Swedish forward Rickard Hugg, from the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL.
Asked what he told his players after the unlikely result, Swedish head coach Tomas Monten said: 鈥淭o step up and take it. It just is. This is really tough for a 19-year-old because it鈥檚 a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But they will go on to play bigger games than this one.鈥�
Monten touched on the flu, which ravaged the Swedish team late in pool play: 鈥淲e had a lot of sickness going around and haven鈥檛 practised as a [full] team for five days to work on details. It was basically play game, rest, play game, rest. But I don鈥檛 want to take anything away from the Swiss. They were great.鈥�
Indeed, they were.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檙e just riding the wave now,鈥� said Swiss head coach Chris Wohlwend.
Watch out, Finland. That Swiss wave is coming across the Strait of Georgia and right at you in the semifinals.
U.S. advances with win over Czechs
UNITED STATES 3
CZECH REPUBLIC 1
Form, however, held in the second quarter-final played on Blanshard. The Pool B second-seed U.S., with Vancouver Canucks draft picks Quinn Hughes and Tyler Madden, defeated the Pool A third-place Czech Republic 3-1. Quinn鈥檚 brother Jack Hughes, the projected No. 1 pick for the 2019 NHL draft, returned after missing three games and nimbly assisted on the first American goal by Noah Cates.
鈥淰ictoria has been great for us,鈥� said Jack Hughes.
鈥淲e were treated really well. Vancouver will be a different beast, with a lot of things circling around it regarding Quinny [brother and Canucks 2018 first-round draft pick Quinn Hughes, selected seventh overall].鈥�
Jack Hughes, perhaps surprisingly for an American player, expressed a tinge of regret about the Finnish upset of sa国际传媒: 鈥淚鈥檓 obviously a little disappointed. USA versus sa国际传媒 in sa国际传媒 in the final would have been a blast and a great game and a bit of a dream come true.鈥�
But it鈥檚 those precarious cross-over quarter-finals, which in a long history in international sport, bagged two more formidable victims Wednesday in the form of the Canadians and Swedes.
