On Tuesday at the World Championship, Switzerland created a 2-on-0 breakaway with an empty net in front of them. Holding a 3-2 lead late in the third period, they could have iced the game and Latvia’s chances in the tournament.
Swiss somehow miss empty net on 2-on-0 breakaway
Putting a new twist on “Swiss Miss.”
Then this happened.
You could say that the Latvian backchecker really neutralized the Swiss here.
Reto Suri, the guy who had the puck first, probably should've just dropped it into the net. But for whatever reason, he decided to pass off to Thomas Rufenacht, who had Latvia's Kristaps Sotnieks barreling down on him from behind.
In the NHL, this probably would have been an automatic goal, since Sotnieks pretty clearly hooked Rufenacht from behind, denying him what would have otherwise been a reasonable scoring chance. With an empty net, the goal is just given to the player as opposed to a penalty shot attempt. IIHF rules might be different, but at the very least, a penalty shot should have been given here.
Switzerland won anyway, though. And they got laughed at on international television. Fun day.
h/t RMNB
