Switzerland scored twice on an early first-period double minor and skated to a 3-2 win over Slovakia this afternoon at Grand Casino Arena. 

The win gives the Swiss third place in Group A and puts Slovakia in fourth. Both teams will learn their quarter-finals opponents later today as the final day of the preliminary round unfolds.

"It was a great team effort," said Swiss assistant captain Loris Wey, one of the goalscorers. "I'm really proud of how we played in all areas of the ice. To score those two early goals was huge and gave us momentum for the whole game."

"We have  really great team here, a good group of guys who work hard, but it's always the small details that get us in trouble," noted Slovak defender Luka Radivojevic. "A lot of times we play a really good game and then something happens, and we lose. I think if we can get rid of those little things, we can be successful."

The game started slowly and tentatively, with many whistles and a lack of flow for much of the opening period. Everything changed when Tobias Tomik took a double minor for high sticking Lars Steiner at 16:53. The Swiss capitalized with two goals in the next minute and a half.

The first goal came off a Jamiro Weber shot that was tipped in front by Wey at 18:05. Just 17 seconds later, they doubled their lead on a similar play. This time, Mike Aeschlimann did the tipping in front off a shot by Daniil Ustinkov.

These goals were a big boost for the team's power play, which had struggled mightily and scored only once on ten previous opportunities.
 

The Swiss had another power play early in the second but didn’t convert, and Slovakia finally got a 5-on-4 of their own midway through. The Slovaks had been 5-for-15 on the power play during the tournament and the Swiss were tops on the penalty kill, not surrendering a goal on eleven short-handed situations. 

In this case, the Swiss won out, staying perfect and keeping their 2-0 lead. Slovakia, though, had the better of play for several minutes, but later in the period the Swiss turned the tide and eventually scored again. After some good pressure in the Slovak end, Kimi Koerbler took a shot that was blocked in front. The loose puck went right to Kevin Haas, who had an open net to fire into at 16:13. 

The Slovaks tried to get back into it early in the third, breaking Elijah Neuenschwander's shutout and gaining some momentum. It was a goal very similar to Switzerland's first two. This time, Tomas Chrenko took the shot and Adam Nemec stabbed at it. The puck hit the crossbar, bounced off the goalie's back, and dribbled in at 7:41 to make it a 3-1 game.

Radivojevic got a late goal off a faceoff win with only 9.1 seconds remaining and Pradel on the bench, but it was too little, too late. In retrospect, those early two goals on the double minor was too great a hindrance for the Slovaks to overcome.

"It happens," Radivojevic philosophized. "It's hockey. We have to learn from it, but it happened in the first period, so we still had two periods to come back, and it didn't happen. So it's on all of us. It was good we played so well in the third period, but we need to play like that for 60 minutes."