BUFFALO – The year 2014 was a memorable one for Swiss forward Alina Muller. At just 15 she was the youngest hockey player to compete at the Winter Olympics in Sochi. She then helped the U18 team win promotion to the top division and a trip to Buffalo 2015.

With that kind of experience, you could say Muller is one of the most mature 16-year-olds to compete at the 2015 IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship. But as with her selection to the national Olympic squad and her role in helping the Swiss make an incredible run to a bronze medal finish, Muller is taking it all in stride.

“It’s been good so far, we have a very young team but we want to reach the quarter-finals, or at least to stay in the top division this year,” said Muller.  

Despite being in her teens, Alina Muller has already made a name for herself in Swiss women’s ice hockey. She made her Olympic debut at 15 years, 10 months and 27 days. This made her the third-youngest hockey player to have appeared at the Olympic Games, behind Swedish goalkeeper Kim Martin Hasson (15 years, 1 month, 8 days), and Italy’s Valentina Bettarini (15 years, 7 months, 13 days).

“She’s an incredibly talented and hardworking player,” said her Olympic teammate and fellow bronze medalist Florence Schelling. “Not only is she an important player on the ice for the Swiss team, but she has also an important role off the ice, as she has become a great role model for other players. We are very fortunate to have a player like Alina on our team.”

In the summer of 2013 Muller wasn’t thinking of the Olympics, and spent most of the time just practicing with the U18 team. It wasn’t until she attended a senior pre-Olympic training camp that a trip to Sochi became a reality.

“I was at a selection camp in Austria when the last three cuts were being made,” said Muller. “I didn’t know who the cuts were, but on the last day I noticed three girls were crying and realized I had made the team.”

Despite her age, Muller did not take a backseat to her more experienced colleagues, contributing three points in six games. She scored just one goal, and on an empty net at that, but it was a big one. Muller’s score came against Sweden on the final day of the women’s tournament, an empty netter that turned out to be the game winner which gave her team the bronze, Switzerland’s first Olympic medal in women’s ice hockey.

“It was amazing, special to win a game like that that was so close,” she said. We couldn’t believe it, it was the wildest game I ever played in.”

To score such a goal in the Olympic Games at only 15, and to take part in Sochi 2014 was a special experience for the girl from Winterthur, a northeastern Swiss city located not far from Zurich.

“The Olympics were amazing, I was able to meet some players from Canada like Sidney Crosby, John Tavares, and P.K. Subban, and we saw some events like the Swiss men’s team play, some curling and snowboarding. We were also in front of the Swiss athletes' group during the opening ceremony which was pretty special.”

Experiences like that will be hard to top. But Alina has nothing but time, and her hockey skills should continue to develop. A month later in Fussen, Germany, she got the chance to showcase her offensive skills at the U18 Women’s World Championship Division I. Muller was the offensive engine that powered the Swiss to Buffalo, notching 12 points including nine goals in just five games as the Swiss won promotion to the top division. Muller earned a Directorate Award as the tournament’s top player. Her MVP performance that included scoring the goal that won promotion for her team in the final game against hosts Germany.

98 seconds before the end of regulation time with the teams tied 1-1, Alena Hahn made it 2-1 for Germany. But the Swiss struck back when a bad pass of a German player in her own zone gave Muller the chance for a shot with 55 seconds left, the puck going in through the German goalkeeper’s five-hole. Although they lost in overtime, the 2-2 tie after 60 minutes gave Switzerland the points needed to win the tournament.

“I thought we were finished,” said Muller. “I took on a different role there than in Sochi, and was able to contribute more, and in the last game score the tying goal which was great.”

A career in hockey seemed destined for Muller, who started at a young age and got her family in on the game.

“Growing up I lived near a hockey rink and my father and I would go play and skate often, one time I saw some children having a hockey practice and I wanted to go so that’s how it started.”

Later on her brother Mirco Muller followed his little sister and picked up hockey as well. Flash forward to 2013, when Mirco was drafted in the first round by the San Jose Sharks, although Alina won’t admit she had anything to do with it.

“(Laughs) No, he’s really good,” said Alina, who last week went to watch her brother play for Switzerland at the 2015 World Junior Championship. 


ADAM STEISS