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February 20, 2014

Switzerland Women Win First Olympic Hockey Medal


The Swiss women defeated Sweden 4-3 in the women's bronze medal game today

It is the first medal for Swiss women's hockey ever. In fact, it is the first medal for Swiss hockey entirely since 1928.

They also become just the 5th nation to win a women's hockey Olympic medal since being accepted as a sport in 1998, joining Canada, United States, Sweden and Finland.

The game ended in a wild finish with Switzerland scoring all four of their goals in the third period, erasing a 2-0 deficit. Alina Muller's empty-netter unexpectedly proved to be the winner

Sweden valiantly tried to come back only to run out of time.

Switzerland's other goals were scored by Jessica Lutz, Sara Benz and Phoebe Stanz. Sweden replied with tallies from Pernilla Winberg, Michelle Lowenhielm and Erica Uden Johansson.

"We never gave up," said star Swiss goalie Florence Schelling. "We never stopped believing. A huge change for us was beating Russia in the quarter-finals 2-0. And then going into the semi-final and only losing to Canada 3-1. We won the second period in that game and tied the third. That was incredible for us to make us believe today we could win the bronze medal."

8283 fans witnessed the thrilling game. 

While it is great to see the rise of the Swiss women's game Sweden continues to struggle. They won Olympic bronze in 2002 and silver in 2006, but they have not won a medal of any kind in any international event since 2007.

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