Olympics: Three Zug players in the quarters

Three players from the EVZ Men’s Team are competing with their national teams at the Olympic Games in Italy this week. How are they performing? Here is the overview.

Olympic men’s tournament

Featured players from the EVZ Men’s Team

Switzerland: Leonardo Genoni
Czech Republic: Dominik Kubalík
Slovakia: Tomáš Tatar

Quarterfinals
12:10 p.m.: Slovakia vs. Germany
4:40 p.m.: Canada vs. Czechia
6:10 p.m.: Finland vs. Switzerland

Quarterfinal playoffs
Tomas Tatar and his Slovakian teammates qualified directly for the quarterfinals as group winners. Not so Leonardo Genoni (Switzerland) and Dominik Kubalík (Czechia), who both had to go through the pre-playoffs, winning two games each. Leonardo Genoni celebrates his second shutout in his third Olympic appearance in Switzerland’s 3-0 win over Italy. Kubalík wins 3-2 with Czechia against Denmark. All three EVZ players are now in the quarterfinals.

GROUP STAGE

1st round group stage
The only EVZ player in the Swiss Olympic squad, which is peppered with NHL stars, manages to impress right at the start of the tournament. Goaltender Leonardo Genoni celebrates a shutout in the opening game against France and thus plays his part in an unchallenged 4-0 win to start the tournament. The Swiss will continue on Friday against the star team from Canada. Another EVZ player, Tomáš Tatar, was already involved in the tournament action on Wednesday. Tatar led Slovakia onto the ice as captain and the team defeated Finland 4:1 thanks to a strong final third. Dominik Kubalík suffers a 0-5 defeat to Czechia in his opening game.

2nd round group stage

In Switzerland’s 1-5 defeat to gold medal favorites Canada, Akira Schmid replaces Zug’s Leonardo Genoni in the national team goal. The other two EVZ players have reason to celebrate, however. Although both Tomáš Tatar with Slovakia and Dominik Kubalík failed to score any points, they secured victories with Slovakia and Czechia respectively, putting themselves in a good position in the battle for the quarterfinals. While Tatar will now face Sweden, Kubalík and Czechia will take on Switzerland on Sunday.

3rd round group stage

There was huge celebration among the Slovaks and their Zug captain Tomáš Tatar. Thanks to a goal 39 seconds before the end to make it 3-5 against Sweden, Slovakia secured victory in Group B and thus a place in the Olympic quarterfinals. This is because they have the best goal difference in the direct matches with Sweden and Finland, who are level on points. In Group A, the duel between Switzerland and Czechia, and thus Genoni and Kubalík, goes to Leonardo Genoni. The Swiss will face Italy in the quarter-finals of the playoffs, while Czechia will face Denmark.

Match schedule Switzerland: