- Swiss women are clearly shown dignity in the opening game of the Olympic ice hockey tournament in Beijing.
- World champions Canada eliminated national coach Colin Mueller’s team by 12:1.
- It was only in the 49th minute that Lara Stalder scored a consolation goal for the only success story.
Tension had long left the game one-sided. The only exciting question that still arose in the final stages: can the overwhelmed Swiss women survive the “Stangeli”?
The disastrous answer was: No! The maximum penalty – Canada’s 10th goal – went past the SIHF selection in the 54th minute. And Andrea Brandley later had to reach 11th and 12th time as well.
Eventually, the bronze winners of Sochi 2014 put themselves on the results board before the final act of Schutzenfest. In the 49th minute, Lara Stalder scored the long-awaited goal to make it 1:9 – meanwhile Switzerland needed a double majority position for this honorable mention. Shortly before the break in the second period of the third period, the same player had missed out on the best chance of relief until that moment, and was defended brilliantly by Ann-Renée Desbiennes.
Much more serious than 8 years ago
So the first steps in the Winter Games for the national team were in contrast to the steps 4 years earlier in Pyeongchang. At that point, the Swiss beat Korea 8-0 in a game with a false signal earlier than Thursday.
In Sochi in 2014, Switzerland was also given Canada’s unpleasant opening task. At that time, however, “Ahornblatt”, a four-time Olympic gold winner and 11-time world champion, “only” won 5–0, falling far behind.
So it’s running in Beijing for the women’s national team
Now it is up to Switzerland to wake up from this humiliation as soon as possible. The next probationer against the Russian team is already awaited on Friday morning (commented from 5:10am in the SRF live stream). In the more affluent Group A, in which Switzerland is divided and therefore certainly has quarter-final qualification, it is all about gaining momentum to stage in the knockout format.
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