HELSINKI – Team captain Mark Streit scored two and added an assist, and Reto Berra made 19 saves in Switzerland's 5-1 win over Kazakhstan.
"There are no easy games in this tournament, all teams can play. Fortunately, we got an early lead," Streit said.
"We knew we couldn't have any turnovers in the neutral zone. We wanted to get the puck deep into their zone, cycle it there, and get them tired. That's what we did, they took a couple of penalties, and we took advantage of that," he added.
It’s not every day Switzerland and Kazakhstan meet in a World Championship game. In fact, today’s game was just the second time it happened. In 2005, Switzerland beat Kazakhstan 2-1 in Vienna, Austria.
This time, the Swiss wouldn’t allow Kazakhstan to torment them at all, and instead, took a command of the game early on.
"We knew Kazakhstan had been promoted from Division I, so it was important for us to win the first game. But it’s a long tournament and things are going to change. We have to keep playing better," said Benjamin Pluss, who made his World Championship debut in the game.
It took Switzerland only 12 minutes to get a two-lead in the game, and after that, the uphill got a little too steep for the Kazakhs.
First, Ivo Rüthemann fired a slapshot from the point, and although Vitali Kolesnik got a piece of it with his blocker, the puck bounced towards the net, and finally just over the goal line to give Switzerland a 1-0 lead at 9:48.
Less than two minutes later, Switzerland opened Kazahkstan’s penaty kill unit like a can of sardines with a chain of perfect passes. First, Mark Streit sent the puck from the hash marks to Severin Blindenbacher at the point. He redirected it to Roman Wick who sent a cross ice pass to Streit who had an easy task to one time into an empty Kazakhstan net with 8:56 remaining in the first period, to make it 2-0.
"They played well, and it was good for us to get a couple of goals on the power play," said Streit.
"The first game is always difficult. I think we played well, but we took too many penalties," said Kolesnik.
Kazakhstan got an excellent start to the second period when Roman Starchenko sent the puck towards the Swiss net but it got deflected to the point, and Roman Savchenko onetimed a hard slapshot past Reto Berra in Switzerland’s goal.
But Kazakhstan got into penalty trouble right after their goal, and Mark Streit gave Switzerland a two-goal lead with just as thunderous slapshot as Savchenko’s on a 5-on-3 power play. It was his second of the game, and the assist was Blindenbacher’s second point of the game.
And Kazakhstan didn’t make things any easier on themselves by taking more penalties. At 12:08 into the second period, Streit’s long pass sent Dennis Hollenstein and Rüthemann on a 2-on-1 attack on power play. Hollenstein got Kolesnik to hit the ice, then moved the puck to Ruthemann who had an easy task to score his second goal of the game. Streit added his third point of the game.
"It was nice to score two goals, but we have a very big game tomorrow, and we can't feel too comfortable about ourselves. This is in the past, and we look forward to the game against Belarus," said Streit.
Then, at 16:53, Félicien Du Bois got the puck straight after an offensive zone faceoff. He drove to the net and beat Kolesnik with a backhander to make it 5-1.
"The last period was the toughest for me," said Reto Berra, even if he only faced six shots in the period.
"It's always tough for a goalie when he doesn't have a lot to do. I was so focused, it was good to get the win," he added.
Kazakhstan’s coach Andrei Shayanov made a goalie change during the intermission, and let Alexei Ivanov take over from Kolesnik.
"It was good to get a tough game here, we'll be ready for our game against France tomorrow. The coach will let us know tonight who will play in goal then," he said.
RISTO PAKARINEN |
