Switzerland is headed to the semifinal after beating Russia 4-2 in a tight affair in women's Olympic hockey action.
Switzerland is headed to the semifinal after beating Russia 4-2 in a tight affair in women's Olympic hockey action.
Switzerland will look to replicate its 2014 medal run that saw them take bronze with its opponent to be determined on Saturday. Russia fell short after a tough tournament that only saw them win once in Beijing, a 5-2 win over Switzerland on Feb. 3.
The game was tight, with neither team willing to take many risks throughout the first two periods. But at 14:31, Phoebe Staenz broke into the slot and took Alina Muller's pass to beat Valeria Merkusheva down low for the opening goal.
The lead didn't last for long. Three minutes later, Anna Savonina scored after her quick wrister went under the bar quickly and in for the 1-1 goal.
The Swiss found themselves chasing the action early in the third and it nearly ended up hurting them. Anna Shokhina scored what appeared to be a big goal, but the Swiss used a coach's challenge to try and reverse it. The Swiss argued that there should have been a stoppage of play seconds earlier that wasn't called, and the review determined that was correct and took the goal away.
And that's when things got interesting. On the very next play, Keely Moy went the other way and set up Dominque Ruegg on a 2-on-1. Ruegg made no mistake on the one-timer and put the Swiss back in the lead with just over half the period to go.
Russia's attack was furious, and they'd answer back at 56:53. 20-year-old forward Polina Luchnikova would tie the game back up after knocking the puck past Swiss netminder Andrea Brandli to make it 2-2. But a goal 30 seconds later from Muller would put the Swiss back in front, before she scored an empty-netter to finish off the game in spectacular fashion.