As the 2025 IIHL Mens World Championship closes in on the quarterfinal round starting on May 22nd, let's do some quick trivia: who is leading the tournament in goals up to this point? Nate MacKinnon? Nope. Syd the Kid? Whiff. David Pastrnak? Close, but no.

Give up? Good call because it's Sven Andrighetto of Team Switzerland. The former NHLer (Montreal and Colorado) and current member of the ZSC Lions of the Swiss National League is leading all scorers with seven goals. Getting that kind of depth scoring, in addition to contributions from NHL names like Timo Meier, Nico Hischier, and Kevin Fiala, go a long way to explain why the Swiss have finished first in Group B with 19 points, 6-0-1-0.  The Swiss are tied with the USA with 34 goals for but have allowed just nine goals against. Pretty stingy, right?

After conceding the first goal in their final preliminary round match against Kazakhstan, the Swiss strung together four straight goals, with LA King Kevin Fiala tying the game at 1-1 on the power play with just seconds remaining in the second period. Fiala drove hard to the net and allowed a hard pass from Denis Malgin, who leads all Group B skaters with nine assists, to deflect off his right skate and into the goal past Kazakh goalie Maxime Pavlenko.

After joining Team Switzerland following the Kings' first-round playoff series loss to the Edmonton Oilers, Fiala has chipped in two goals and five assists and has a +8 rating. 

Switzerland will begin knockout round play on May 22nd against Austria, who finished fourth in Group A. After finishing last in Group B, Kazakhstan will be relegated to Division 1A after a five-year run in international hockey's top division. In Group A, France will also be relegated to the lower division after posting a record of 0-0-1-6 in the tournament. Pas terrible, quoi.