After knocking off the Fins in the quarterfinals, Team Switzerland embraced their underdog role once again, this time upsetting Team Canada with a 3-2 victory.
With the win, the Swiss are off to the gold-medal game where they’ll face a stacked Swedish squad lead by Filip Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson; Team Canada will face the Americans with the winner taking home the bronze medal. Canada last won a bronze at the 1995 World Championships
Canada didn’t go down quietly, as they peppered Swiss goaltender Leonardo Genoni in the third period with 17 shots to Switzerland’s one. He was the difference maker in the game along with a little luck and some opportunistic play from his teammates on the PP, as Gord Miller and Ray Ferraro point out below.
Trailing 1-0 until 7:20 of the second period, Bo Horvat equalized it at 1-1.
The Swiss restored the lead moments later, before making it 3-1 in the third.
Colton Parayko scored late, but the comeback stopped there, as the Canada failed to play their fourth straight gold medal game at the IIHF. Darcy Kuemper made 14 saves in the loss, and allowed a goal on the only shot he faced in the third period.
Switzerland, making their first semi-finals appearance at the tournament in five years will once again play Sweden in the gold medal match after facing them in 2013. As a federation this year, Hockey Canada has fallen to the Germans at the Olympics, the Czechs at the U18’s and Switzerland at the World Championships. While those countries aren’t traditional hockey powerhouses like Canada, it’s good for the sport to see other countries defeat them.
Here’s some of the best reaction around the hockey world on the Swiss upset.
You can catch the gold and bronze medal games on Sunday across TSN.
