When Canada defeated Russia in overtime in Thursday's quarterfinal round of the 2018 IIHF World Championship, the team didn't know that it was going to win twice in a matter of hours.
Shortly after Ryan O'Reilly's power play goal clinched a 5-4 victory for the Canadians, Switzerland stunned Group B winner Finland 3-2 in another quarterfinal, setting up an unlikely semifinal. Instead of having to face the Finns, who demolished the Canadians in the group stage, Canada will instead prepare for the Swiss.
WOW! Three quick goals within five minutes and a defensive clinic in the third period helped @SwissIceHockey top @leijonat #FINvsSUI #IIHFWorlds pic.twitter.com/5sxzdLJyE5
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) May 17, 2018
Switzerland finished the preliminary round in fourth place in Group A on the strength of 12 points from seven games. While not making many people turn their heads in the tournament, the Swiss have been competitive in every game thus far. Led by solid play from Nino Niederreiter and Enzo Corvi, Switzerland's biggest loss was a 5-3 defeat to Sweden on May 13.
And yet, despite the Swiss looking to be a challenging obstacle to the gold medal game, Canada has to feel that its got the easier of the two semifinal match-ups (the Swedes face the United States in the other semi). With Finland out, the Canadians avoid the one team in the competition that has humbled them, and won't have to worry about dealing with red-hot youngster Sebastian Aho.
However fortunate they feel for not having to face Finland again, the Canadians will still be looking to clean up their game against a tricky opponent in the Swiss. After a quarterfinal game that saw Russia fight back from three separate deficits before succumbing in overtime, Canada hopes to be more secure in their own zone against Switzerland.
"I thought we did a better job of scoring goals [in the quarterfinal against Russia], obviously, but when we have the lead like that we have to do a better job of defending," O'Reilly told TSN on Thursday. "We can't be giving up that much. We have to defend a little bit better, make it a little more tougher and take away their offence."
O'Reilly and Canada face the Swiss on Saturday at 1:15 p.m. Eastern.