Face-off: 1420 BST, 21/05/2022
Arena: Helsinki Ice Hall
Canada face their first real test at this year’s IIHF World Championship when taking on a dangerous Switzerland side in Helsinki.
Both teams have claimed four straight victories in Group A and past meetings at this level have been tight, with only one goal separating them in the last three tournament encounters.
All of those games produced 3-2 scorelines, so 16.0 for the holders to prevail by the same margin here kicks off our Canada vs Switzerland predictions.
Canada Odds
Canada began their campaign with a 5-3 defeat of Germany, before beating Italy 6-1 and Slovakia 5-1, but were given a tougher test than expected by Kazakhstan.
Claude Julien’s side fell behind twice in the opening period and only led 4-3 halfway through the third, until pulling away late on.
Buffalo Sabres centre Dylan Cozens hit a hat-trick, while New Jersey Devils defenceman Damon Severson had a goal and two assists.
“They came out really hard,” Cozens told the IIHF website. “They had a really good game and it was close for a long time.
“We know we’ve got a lot better than that to give. There’s times I think we got sloppy.
“But, at the end of the day, we got the win. We’re just learning every day and getting better and better.”
Canada have impressed going forward but are yet to get into playoffs mode at the back.
That makes 3.4 for the holders to win in regular time and both teams to score at least twice stand out from the Canada vs Switzerland odds.
Switzerland Odds
Switzerland started off with a 5-2 success versus Italy before cruising to a 6-0 triumph over Denmark.
However, they also had to work hard to edge out Kazakhstan 3-2 and then got the better of Slovakia by a 5-3 scoreline.
Detroit Red Wings forward Pius Suter provided three assists last time out, while New Jersey captain Nico Hischier and Timo Meier of the San Jose Sharks were among the scorers.
Switzerland showed plenty of spirit and resilience to defend their lead after suffering late penalties.
“It wasn’t a perfect game,” admitted Meier. “We took a lot of stupid penalties, but we found a way to win again, which is huge.
“Great job by our PK to kill off all those penalties. We’ve got to learn from that. We’ve got to smarten up and we can’t do that again.
“Taking that many penalties, when you play Team Canada, they’re gonna take advantage of that. It’s gonna get really tough.”
The Swiss will be hoping to make another strong start, having scored first in all four games so far, whereas Canada have twice trailed early on.
Let’s have a saver on the underdogs to break the deadlock at 2.3 to finish off our Canada vs Switzerland betting tips.
Additional stats
Last results:
CANADA 6-3 Kazakhstan
SWITZERLAND 5-3 Slovakia
Head-to-head: Canada 3-2 Switzerland, Canada 2-3 Switzerland, Canada 2-3 Switzerland
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