Fribourg-Gotteron forward Nathan Marchon is playing in his first IIHF World Junior Championship and, at age 19, his last. At the end of the group stage, he reflected on where the Swiss national junior team is at, and on Fribourg's strange season in both the NLA and CHL.

by Dominik Jakubec

MONTREAL – After two straight years in the relegation round, Switzerland is back in the quarter-finals of the IIHF World Junior Championship. However, they're still not entirely happy. Entering their final Group A game on New Year's Eve against previously winless Finland, they had a chance to finish second win a win. Instead, they fell 2-0 and finished fourth in the group.

“We wanted to get second place, but we didn't play very well today, so we didn't do it and we're disappointed about that,” said forward Nathan Marchon, a 19-year-old from Fribourg-Gotteron who is playing in his first and last U20 World Championship.

The Swiss had secured a berth in the quarter-finals with a 5-4 shootout win over Denmark on Friday, but didn't play the kind of game they needed on Saturday, and Marchon was left trying to explain where the team was lacking, and what they need to do better.

“Maybe we were a bit tired but we didn't get enough shots – they out-shot us 51-17, so we have to be better defensively and get more offence going if we want to do better against the Americans.”

The USA will be the Swiss team's opposition on Monday, and the players have to travel to Toronto for the game. The Americans were 4-0 to win Group B, but this tournament has shown a level of parity not previously seen at the World Juniors, which gives the Swiss room for optimism.

“We saw that anybody can beat anybody, which makes it more fun,” he said, referring mostly to the upstart Danish team, the fall of the defending champions from Finland, and the number of games settled in extra time. “It's not like how it used to be, when the big teams dominated everything. That means you have to compete and go hard every game, because you always have a chance to win but you also have a chance to lose. That's hockey.”

Marchon has split this season between Gotteron's A and U20 teams, as well as an eight-game stint with HC Ajoie in the NLB, Switzerland's second-tier pro league. He's played seven games in the NLA and five in the Champions Hockey League this season, and notes the difference in success the team's had. They are currently last in the top Swiss league, but have reached the Semi-Finals in Europe's top club team competition.

“I don't know, it's like two different teams sometimes,” he said, trying to offer an explanation. “We've had a difficult time in the Swiss league, but I guess when we play in the Champions League we focus on winning that, and it's a bit of an escape from the troubles we've been having.”

Fribourg have their work cut out for them in the CHL Semi-Finals, facing defending champions Frolunda Gothenburg. Marchon doesn't know yet if he will be playing, but having played against both national and club teams from around Europe, he has an idea what can be expected. 

“We know that Swedish and Finnish teams are very skilled – they have a lot of speed and they play well defensively too. When they get a lead they're very difficult to score against, as we saw here,” he said, referring to how the Finns protected the lead against the Swiss national juniors. 

“We have to be better.”