Kings' Fiala and Team Switzerland Shutout Team USA 3-0
In his first game of the 2025 IIHL Mens World Championships, Kevin Fiala came ready to play. Looking creative and dangerous with the puck all afternoon and into the evening, the 35-goal scorer for the LA Kings this past season played a big role in handing Team USA its first loss of the tournament. Playing alongside New Jersey Devil Nico Hischier and Swiss-American Tyler Moy on the top line, the addition of Fiala may have contenders like Canada, the USA, Czechia, and Sweden looking over their shoulders a bit.
In what has become familiar to LA Kings' fans over the years, Kevin was "being Kevin" out there for the Swiss during this game, which works much more often than not. In addition to some risky passes and decisions in his own zone, Fiala used his skating to attack the US defenders up ice and was constantly looking to create chances. The MVP from the 2024 Worlds also clanked a hard wrister off of US goalie Joey Daccord's post and used his stickhandling and skating to draw a penalty as well.
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Although dominating in puck possession during most of the first period, Team USA had trouble mustering a consistent attack for most of the game against last year's silver medalists and looked out of sorts for large stretches of the contest. In this type of tournament, teams need to come together quickly and sometimes lack the chemistry needed to form a cohesive unit. Team USA will need to quickly find its mojo if it hopes to come away with the gold medal on May 25th.
After opening the scoring at 12:46 of the first period on a lob deflection from Damian Riat, the Swiss would make it 2-0 just three minutes later. Kevin Fiala backed up the US defense with speed and dropped the puck back to Jonas Siegenthaler, who zipped a wrist shot past Daccord.
Swiss goalie Leonardo Gemoni, currently playing for Swiss National League A team EV Zug, stopped all 23 shots he faced, answering those who second guessed his selection to the national side this year.
Preliminary stage play will resume for the Swiss on May 15th when they square off with Germany, while the US will look to get back in the win column against Norway on May 14th.
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