Switzerland secured the second place in Group A – 06.12.2015

Switzerland started the game fast as Corin Ruttimann scored the first goal on the third minute. They controlled the ball but as the period continued the control of the game became evened for a long period of time. In the 19th minute, Switzerland got a lucky breakthrough. Janine Wuthrich’s shot from the half court hit the defender and the ball bounced over the goalkeeper to the back corner. Switzerland took the 2-0 lead to the first intermission.

Norway got a dream start to the second period. Kristine Naess forechecked the ball behind the Swiss goal and passed it in front of the goal where Karen Farnes was left all alone and had an easy job to put the ball into the net. But the joy didn’t last for long as Swiss Flurina Marti gave a perfect pass across the court to the back post and Priska von Rickenbach lifted the ball high into the net from short range to make it 3-1.

At 7:43, Margrit Scheidegger took a minor penalty and Norway got a chance on man advantage. Switzerland killed the penalty and kept the ball most of the two minutes. As it often does, the penalty kill gave Switzerland an extra boost. Just a few minutes later Lena Cina depressed Norway by stretching the lead to 3 goals. Shortly after, Corinne Häubi gave a saucer pass towards the goal and Ladina Sgier slammed the bouncing ball behind the goalkeeper. Norway’s defense started to open up and Ruttimann changed the score to 6-1 before the intermission.

From the start, the final period was controlled by Switzerland.  They scored three times in the last 20 minutes by Michelle Wiki, Sonja Putzi and Brigitte Mischler. Norway continued to defend low in their own half so there was no change in the game tempo to make any kind of chase.  After the game Norway’s only scorer, Farnes, told the reason for this.

“It was our tactic to defend low and spare energy for the upcoming games in the tournament.”