Colorado Avalanche goalies are tearing up Turin so far as David Aebischer batted away a furious, second-period assault today and led Switzerland to a 3-2 upset over the Czech Republic.
Aebischer’s teammates racked up 14 penalty minutes in the second period alone. That allowed Jaromir Jagr, Milan Hejduk and Pavel Kubina to circle like vultures. But during the 21-shot Czech barrage, Aebischer allowed only one goal, by Jagr.
“Everyone should enjoy this moment for a couple of hours,” Aebischer said. “With a performance like this, we will do fine in the tournament.”
The Swiss win came a day after Aebischer’s Colorado teammate, Peter Budaj, turned away 20 shots in a Slovakian win over Russia. Vitaly Kolesnik, who has spent most of the NHL season with Colorado’s minor-league affiliate and plays for Kazakhstan, will try to keep the Colorado hot streak alive later today against Team USA.
On Wednesday, the Swiss lost to Finland 5-0 but Aebischer only saw tidy-up duty late in the game, knocking down all 12 shots he faced.
