Marty and the Swiss Avoid Relegation
4/9/2009 2:54:16 PM | Ice Hockey
Sophomore co-captain Stefanie Marty, Syracuse's team leader with 0.79 points per game in the Orange's inaugural season, is playing with her native Swiss National Tean at the 2009 IIHF Women's World Championship in Hämeenlinna, Finland.
Switzerland lost its first two games against Kazakhstan and Finland, 2-1 and 6-3, respectively, in preliminary Group C play, but responded with a dramatic 5-4 come-from-behind victory against China and a 3-2 win against Japan.
With the win against Japan in the 'Relegation Round', the Alpine nation secured a spot in the 2011 Women's World Championship.
In Switzerland's first game against Kazakhstan, Marty was voted as the Swiss' "Player of the Game". Marty attempted seven shots on net in her team's setback.
To see Team Switzerland's overall statistics, click here.
(courtesy of IIHF.com)
Box Score: SUI vs. CHN
HÄMEENLINNA, FINLAND - Switzerland mounted an unbelievable third-period comeback, netting three, third-period goals to top China, 5-4 in a shootout. The Swiss rally brought the team one step closer to avoiding relegation, although with two teams going down to Division I, nothing is certain until the three-team round robin is complete.
Darcia Leimgruber was the key the Swiss comeback as she scored two goals in the third-period surge. She gave the Swiss hope with a shorthanded goal 3:50 into the third period. Lucrece Nussbaum followed up with a power-play goal midway through the period to cut the China lead to one. With 4:05 left Leimgruber struck again as the Swiss bench erupted with renewed hope. The goal sent the game to overtime where the Swiss got into penalty trouble but still held China scoreless. In the shootout, the Swiss scored on two of their three chances for the win.
Before the third-period, Switzerland could not find an answer to China's Rui Sun, who had a hat trick in the win, scoring her trio of goals at key times to kill the Swiss momentum. Even go-to goaltender Florence Schelling was pulled mid-game as the Swiss looked for any way to stop the Chinese advance.
Switzerland, a surprise relegation round team, had problems with the Chinese from the first whistle as Sun scored a pair of goals in the first 3:54 to claim the early 2-0 advantage. Switzerland's Christine Meier pulled her team to within one late in the period, but the frustration was clear on the Swiss players' faces as the walked to the locker room after out-shooting China 11-4 in the period. Switzerland out-shot China 39-20 in the game.
Sun struck again to open the second period scoring with a back-breaking shorthanded goal just five seconds after teammate Xueting Qi was whistled for a game misconduct.
Na Jiang struck just over two minutes later to make it an insurmountable 4-1 lead. Schelling was pulled shortly after, and Switzerland took a few frustration penalties to kill most offensive hope for the rest of the period.
Things continued to look bleak on the Swiss side until the shorthanded tally clearly sparked the Swiss players. Swiss goaltender Dominique Slongo also deserves credit for coming in mid-game from the bench and holding the Chinese scoreless.
GAME 4: SWITZERLAND vs. JAPAN
(courtesy of IIHF.com)
Box Score: SUI vs. JPN
Switzerland had to dig deep to beat Japan, a team that was just promoted two years ago. Japan proved to be a feisty and persistent opponent that the Swiss couldn't shake until late in the third period when Laura Ruhnke scored the 3-2 go-ahead goal.
Switzerland struggled in the scoreless first period, getting out-shot 15-6. The Swiss improved dramatically in the second period and got the momentum on their side when Laura Benz opened the scoring 2:03 into the period. But just over four minutes later, Japan got the equalizer when Nachi Fujimoto put her team on the board. Swiss Captain Kathrin Lehmann restored the 2-1 lead with a key power-play goal that came just 23 seconds before the intermission.
Chiaki Yamanaka gave the Swiss some tense moments when she tied the game at two at the 51:22 mark, but three minutes later Ruhnke had the answer with the eventual game-winner. The 3-2 goal stood through a dramatic final two minutes that saw a Swiss penalty and Japan pulling goaltender Azusa Nakaoku in favor of the extra skater.
Swiss head coach Rene Kammerer had a tough choice to make for his starting goaltender after regular starter Florence Schelling was shelled in her outing yesterday against China and replaced by back-up Dominique Slongo. Slongo got the call in today's game and did well, giving up 37 goals on 39 shots.
The win gives Switzerland a seventh-place finish at this year's championship, the lowest finish in the women's top division since they were relegated in 2004 with an eighth-place finish. Japan will return to Division I in 2011 regardless of tomorrow's outcome against China after a two-year stay among the elite nations.
