The final of the 2024 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship will take place on Sunday, 26 May. The hosts will compete for gold medals against Switzerland. The game will take place at the O2 Arena in Prague.
Swiss national ice hockey team
The Swiss national team is having an incredible tournament and is showing great results. The “Ice Friends” (Eisgenossen in German) lost only one game, which took place in the group stage against Canada (2-3). In the semi-finals, they beat the same Canadians. In all other matches, Switzerland won. In one of the games, the team triumphed over the Czechs.
Switzerland also has excellent power play statistics. They had 40 attempts, converting 12, which is 30% success rate and the third best result at the World Championship of Hockey. Their shootout performance is not very good, ranking 15th out of 16 at the World Championship. It’s worth noting that Swiss goaltender Leonardo Genoni is the best in the tournament with a save percentage of 93.48%. He has recorded one shutout, and in general, he concedes an average of 1.45 goals per game.
Czech national ice hockey team
The hosts of the World Cup played a decent group stage, but lost all the key matches. First, the Czech Republic defeated Finland 1-0 in a shootout, but then lost to Canada and Switzerland. As a result, they took third place in the group and met the US national team. In the playoffs, the Czechs played in a completely different way. First, they launched the best attack of the group stage and defeated the Americans 1-0. In the semi-finals, the Czechs put on a real show. They withstood the pressure and twice caught up with Tre Krunur, and in the second period they dominated, scoring three goals and conceding one.
In the semi-finals, the hosts defeated Sweden 7-3, with all the goals scored in the 5-on-5 game. The Czechs prevail in even-strength situations, but have trouble converting shootouts. Czech goaltender Lukas Dostal ranks second in save percentage at 92.86%, allowing an average of 1.8 goals per game and recording two shutouts.
Switzerland vs Czech Republic prediction
The Czech Republic last won gold in 2010, while Switzerland has never won the title but has reached the final several times. The final match will be very tense and obviously not very productive.
Winner of the match including extra time – Switzerland in 2.3
Earlier today, Sweden won the match against Canada for third place.
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