Swiss vs Czech Republic - Game 1
A good start for the Swiss national team
On such short tournaments, you want to lock in as many points as you can early and especially when some of your potential opponents already earned points against some of the favorites. That’s what Switzerland did against a direct opponent. With an aggressive mindset with constant forechecking, defensemen supporting the attack, rapid rushes and an efficient power-play, the Swiss team has a solid win to build on.
First period
The beginning was fast with good chances on both sides. It all started with a turnover from Bertschy in his defensive zone (DZ), offering the first shot of the game after 10 seconds.
Less than 20 seconds later, the Swiss team had an exemplary zone exit right after a DZ faceoff win by Hischier. Moser, Untersander and Meier were all able to escape their forecheckers with quick and direct short passes. Hischier was then able to beat Kovar in the middle of his DZ and find Andrighetto on a cross-ice pass on a 2-on-1. On this sequence, we also saw Untersander being the third man joining the rush. After 2 minutes, the Swiss team had another odd-man rush with a great cross-ice pass from Herzog on a zone entry to Siegenthaler on a 3-on-2, but his shot from the slot was directly stopped by Hrubec.
Until the middle of the period, the pace slowed down. The Swiss players perfectly killed the first penalty against Moser, who got badly caught on a zone entry and had to take a holding penalty. Even on the penalty-kill, the Swiss forecheck was efficient. On its first power-play, the Swiss first unit (Alatalo, Corvi, Hischier, Meier, Kurashev) was able to connect on a set play after passes behind the net between Hischier and Corvi and a behind the net pass from Corvi into the slot to Kurashev, who came from his initial position on the halfwall. Hrubec was able to make the save.
A few minutes later, the Czech team got his best chance after a bad pass from Siegenthaler in the offensive. On the rush against (where an offside position should have been called), the Czech were able to draw a penalty right after the zone entry, get a shot from the slot and a rebound, both saved by Genoni. On this sequence, the Czech team generated 0.69xG.
The Czech scored a few seconds later on the power-play, scoring on a play where both Untersander and Scherwey were too aggressive on the halfwall, leving some space in the slot, where Kovar found Chytil with a pass from the goal line to the slot for the first goal of the game.
Thanks to its aggressivness on the forecheck, Hischier was able to draw a penalty, where Hofmann was able to equalize on a well-timed shot from the blueline as he waited for Simion to screen Hrubec.
Overall, during this first period, the Swiss team was aggressive on the forecheck, with D pinching high in the offensive zone, trying to maintain puck in OZ. Unfortunately, they weren’t very successful and didn’t create much on these sequences.
After 20 minutes: 0.48 xG for SUI, against 1.18 for CZE
Second period
The Czech had a strong start in the 2nd period, where they put some heavy pressure on the Moser-Untersander pairing and created some good chances. Even with the puck in control, that pairing was unable to get the puck out of the zone on 4 occasions. Untersander was on the ice for 95 seconds before reaching the bench for his first change. The Czech had another good chance on another turnover in the defensive zone. Unfortunately for them, they took a questionable penalty on that play.
On the power-play, the Swiss team had a first grade A chance on a successful zone entry where three Czech players got caught covering Simion, who found Hofmann alone in the high-slot on a cross-ice pass. Then, the Czech nearly scored on a breakaway against, but Genoni made the perfect read and save. A few seconds later, Hischier was able to find Meier for the 2-1 thanks to another cross-ice pass. No Czech player was covering for this passing lane, thanks to a Swiss zone entry that probably disorganized the Czech box.
In the following minutes, the Swiss killed another penalty without allowing great chances and got some chances on the rush (from Hofmann and Andrighetto) at even-strength. The pace was quite slow until the 35th minute. On a sequence where Ambühl put the pressure on Vrana right after a dump-in, Scherwey, Bertschy and Praplan nearly scored on that play that started behind the net. That whole shift lead to a penalty against Vrana, but the Swiss weren’t able to score on that power-play. A few seconds after the power-play, that 4th line was able to score on a breakaway that started behind Genoni. Bertschy found Praplan who perfectly launched Scherwey on the breakaway on a zone exit.
Overall, the Swiss defended well, were able to keep the Czech players on the perimeter if we except one breakaway against while on a power-play. They also had the best chances and were able to score on.
After 40 minutes: 2.06 xG for SUI, against 2.01 for CZE
Third period
2 minutes after the start of the period, the Swiss team let a rare chance in the slot for the Czech team, unable to score on it. The rest of the period was well managed by the Swiss team, which, once again, had the best chances.
Indeed, a few minutes after the Czech chance, Hofmann got a first chance on a wrap-around and a rebound. Two minutes later, On the power-play, Andrighetto was able to find an open lane on the power-play with a cross-ice pass for Hofmann who unfortunately missed the net. At the end of the power-play, Hischier found Kurashev in the slot from behind the net, but Will stopped the puck.
On another penalty drawn by Praplan, Corvi finds, again, a passing lane in the Czech box and is able to reach Meier who scores with 10’ left in the game.
With 5 minutes to go, Smejkal scores a second goal, on a tip on a shot from the blueline. A few seconds later, and with two goals down and 4:38 to go, Pesan pulled his goalie and played with 6 players. 10 seconds later, Kovar was penalized. On the power-play, the Swiss team was able to score again. Guess what? On a Royal Road pass from Simion to Hofmann, left alone on the halfwall, in his preferred spot.
By the numbers
It took 40mn but Switzerland finally move ahead in terms of Expected Goals to end the game at 3.61xG to 2.63.
The Swiss were ahead at 5v5 (2.37xG to 1.99) and more than 12 minutes of Power Play gave them a definite edge and they banked on it with 4 goals out of 1.24xG.
The Czech used a lot of passing plays to get inside the slot. We saw Kovar orchestrate several high-danger passes, including the first goal. Those were the only manner where the Czech created more danger with 0.59xG to 0.33. Otherwise, the Swiss created more from rushes, walk-ins, rebounds or royal-road plays.
With the early lead, Switzerland had to switch into a wait and see attitude in the second period. And their true form of dominance over this game was the way they were able to not only push back the Czech but to actually take control in the 3rd period. But to push back first, the Swiss mostly managed to deny controlled entries to their opponents. Out of 52 entries tried, only 42% were controlled by Kovar and his teammates. A low number for hockey. The third period was a dump party as the Swiss defense was holding their blue line very well, killing offensives before they could set up.
Genoni had a good game, he stood firm on multiple good chances during the first 40mn. In the end, he saved 0.57 goals tonight, posting a great 72% of shot control, including killing all 13 shots coming to his upper body. He can’t do much on the second goal tipped in front of him.
Overall, it was a good collective effort from the Swiss, an pretty much everybody participated. The top line of Andrighetto-Hischier-Meier was dangerous, moved the puck a lot and Meier banked his chances like a true elite player in an international tournament. Hischier ends with a 100% success rate on transition. Moreover, 67% of his exits, 100% of his entries and his 3 high-danger passes led to a shot. Hofmann-Corvi-Simion showed a good complementarity. Corvi moved, Simion created space and Hofmann finished. With 1.06xG by himself on 9 shot attempts, he starts his quest of an NHL contract on the right foot.
We saw Kurashev and Herzog move the puck and the 4th line had some very good moments like we said earlier. The defense was good overall, maybe to the exception of Moser whom had a hard time handling the pace and pressure on several occasions. It was probably the most high-level game he ever played and he will need to adjust in the next few days in order to continue building up his NHL hype.
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Find more statistics tracked by Thibaud on his Tableau’s page here: https://public.tableau.com/profile/thibaud.chatel#!/vizhome/WorldChampionship2021/GameReport