Strong game again, should have been a win without two third period defensive blunders (giving away a two on one in the slot right after a faceoff and having four players deep in the offensive zone while protecting a lead with less than two minutes left) and a needless penalty. Good special teams, although the PK is probably a bit too aggressive, and excellent forechecking which gave a lot of trouble to the Russian defence.
Manzato had a strong game again, although his rebound control wasn't as good as last week. On defense, the top four performed very well. Grossmann was the best defenseman, Loeffel helped create a lot on offense, but he didn't look too good on Russia's 2nd goal, Kukan played a simple but very steady game, and Blum had some nice rushes forward. On the other hand, not a great game by the bottom four. Schlumpf was ok, but definitely not as good as last year, Genazzi wasn't as noticeable as against Finland and the 3rd goal is on him, I didn't notice Leeger much and Helbling.... let's just say that at least he was good at giving the PK units some practice time.
On offense, the top line was the only one who reguarly created chances, while the others got their opportunities mostly through grinding and crashing the net. The fourth line had a very good game, Walker was maybe the best Swiss forward, and I was positively surprised by Sannitz and Scherwey. Suri was excellent and was responsible for most of his line's chances, but Almond and Rüfenacht's contribution were pretty much limited to grinding. Haas had a very nice game once again, but his linemates didn't help him much and he's not good enough to elevate the play of his entire line like Suri. Martschini didn't get much ice time, but did very well when used.
My overall impression is that this team really needs at least four defensemen and two creative forwards.
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