Switzerland Survives In Shootout To Advance To Men’s Hockey Quarterfinals

Switzerland will once again get their opportunity to beat the United States after defeating Belarus in Men’s Hockey’s first qualification game Tuesday afternoon in Vancouver, earning a 3-2 shootout victory.

Forward Thomas Deruns and Romano Lemm scored the goals in the shootout, while goalie Jonas Hiller held his ground on two of the three Belarussian shooters. Hnat Domenichelli and Julien Sprunger scored for Switzerland in regulation while it was Konstantin Zakharov and Aleksei Kalyuzhny for Belarus.

Switzerland out-shot Belarus 43-22, 16-7 in the first period, and held ground for most of the game. Hiller played in his fourth game for the Swiss in this tournament and made 20 saves on the 22 shots. A major difference in this game is that Switzerland converted on two of their three powerplay opportunities, compared to the one powerplay goal out of five chances from Belarus.

Switzerland now moves on to face number one seed in the tournament, the United States, and they have some experience against this team.

The U.S. defeated Switzerland in their first game of the tournament, 3-1, and it should be the same matchup in net between Hiller and Ryan Miller. America has the advantage, though, with an extra day’s rest while the Swiss must deal with a short turnaround. The quarterfinal game is set for Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET.

More: SB Nation’s full coverage of the Winter Olympics and the 2010 Winter Olympics Medal Count Tracker.