By the fifth round of the Ice Hockey World Championship, three teams at once became the leaders of Group A.
Russia, Switzerland and Slovakia each scored nine points and broke away from all other teams fighting for the playoffs.
At the same time, the Slovaks managed to play with both neighbors, so that inside this trinity there was only a meeting between the Russians and the Swiss.
Switzerland could be attributed to the most unpredictable participants in the World Cup.
Patrick Fischer's wards are capable of both losing to Sweden, which is experiencing big problems with a humiliating score of 0: 7, and defeating Slovakia, which has beaten Russia, with the same seven goals difference.
The match with Valery Bragin's team was supposed to finally show whether the Swiss are capable of claiming something at the end of the tournament or will be remembered only for the results that cannot be logical.
Bragin, unlike Fischer, had nothing to surprise his opponent with.
Although new players are gradually arriving at the location of the Russian national team, the composition for the match with Switzerland has not undergone major changes compared to the meeting with Denmark.
Except that on the starting throw-in, Bragin released a striking link, hoping to set the game at a high pace from the first minutes.
The first period really passed at high speeds and without unnecessary pauses.
The teams took turns attacking, but did not take advantage of their chances.
The Swiss goalkeeper Reto Berra confidently repelled the raids of Russian hockey players, while Alexander Samonov was often backed by defenders.
This went on for the first ten minutes, until Nikita Zadorov broke the rules on Fabrice Herzog.
Most played by Swiss hockey players could turn into a very dangerous weapon.
Seven of their 14 goals in the tournament, they won with a numerical advantage.
But the Russians are well prepared for the game in unequal compositions.
Although the rivals did not leave the foreign zone for all two minutes, they did not open an account.
The Russian player of the Swiss Philip Kurashev tried especially hard, who either hit the post or led his partners to a half-empty goal.
In equal squads, no one still could seize the advantage for a long time, although closer to the break, the Swiss created the most dangerous moment for the entire period.
Niko Khishir broke through on the right flank and gave a good pass to Andres Ambul.
Only Samonov's reaction saved the Russians from unpleasant conversations in the locker room.
In the second period, the Swiss became more active and tried to gain a foothold in the Russian zone for a long time.
Very inappropriately five minutes later Rushan Rafikov left for the opponent's bandwagon.
But as it turned out, playing in the minority could no longer be afraid.
This time, Fischer's wards did not create such big problems, and the game quickly returned to its usual course.
The Russians kept their goal intact at the end of half an hour of the game, but on their part there were no scoring chances worth remembering. It became really dangerous at the gates of Berr only when he lost his stick and was forced only to beat off Maxim Shalunov's throw with his hands. And soon Romain Loeffl was punished for throwing the puck, and now the Russians could show their skills when playing in the majority. In all previous matches, they made out their first goal only in this way.
We managed to keep the tradition.
Although the team actions of Bragin's charges did not go well, at the end of the two minutes Anton Burdasov grabbed the puck, climbed along the right flank and threw it straight into the far corner of the goal.
The top scorer of the Russian national team in this tournament scored his sixth point, and Emil Galimov, who had not previously distinguished himself with effective actions, became his formal assistant.
At the end of the period, Dmitry Voronkov could double the score, but from his stick the puck hit the frame of Berra's goal.
After the break, the Russians continued to play attacking hockey, but at one point the initiative went abruptly to the Swiss.
They tested Samonov a couple of times for strength, and then Ambul gave a smart pass along the goal to Khishir, who was on duty on the patch.
The captain of the “New Jersey Devils” could only substitute the club to level the score.
At first it seemed that the missed puck put the Russians into a stupor. As fast as before, they no longer attacked, preferring to play the puck for a long time behind their blue line. But still, there was no psychological breakdown, and Bragin's wards again went into a positional attack. Just two minutes after the goal, Sergei Tolchinsky accepted a pass from Alexander Barabanov and began an offensive along the right edge. The Swiss defender pushed him roughly and knocked him onto the ice, for which he should have received a two-minute penalty. However, the Avangard striker did not wait for the whistle and, sitting on the ice with one hand, gave a pass to Pavel Karnaukhov for a patch. He instantly brought the Russians ahead.
Tolchinsky himself did not calm down on this.
Two minutes later, he broke through to the port side, dropped Jonas Siegenthaler and found himself in front of Burr.
The Russian player threw under the crossbar from an uncomfortable hand and made the score 3: 1 seven and a half minutes before the end of the match.
The Swiss did not immediately let go of Berra, but when they played with six, they were able to test the strength of the crossbar of the Russian goal.
Fortunately, the puck never made it into the net, and after the rivals' time-out, Tolchinsky again took over the game.
One and a half seconds before the final siren, he managed to throw on an empty goal and set the final score - 4: 1 in favor of the Russian national team, which beat Switzerland for the tenth time in a row.
Before the match between Slovakia and Denmark, Bragin's wards regained their sole leadership in the group.