Munich, Germany - Los Angeles Kings draftee Flavien Conne and Ivo Rüthemann each scored a goal and an assist as Switzerland stunned Canada in the opening game of the 2003 Deutschland Cup in Hanover Friday afternoon. In the late game, Team USA edged out Germany after penalty shootout.

Despite outshooting the Swiss 44-25, defending champion Canada lost to Switzerland 5-3 (2-1, 2-0, 1-2). After gameday 1, Switzerland leads the standings with three points, Team USA follows with two points after its 2-1 (1-0, 0-1, 0-0, 0-0, 1-0) shootout win over Germany. The Germans received one point for the regulation tie while Canada finds itself in last place with no points. All four teams will face each other once in round-robin play until Sunday. The first place team wins the tournament.

Swizerland jumps out to 5-1 lead

In front of 1,846 spectators at the Preussag Arena, Switzerland and Canada traded early power-play goals. Daniel Steiger opened the scoring just three minutes into the contest. James Black of the Iserlohn Roosters tied it 1-1 at 7:21 of the first period. But the Swiss responded with four unanswered goals, jumping out to a commanding 5-1 lead. With less than seven minutes left in the first period the Swiss took the lead on a fluke goal by Loic Burkhalter. The puck ricocheted off the back boards and hit goaltender Ian Gordon of the Frankfurt Lions in the back of the leg and went behind him for the goal.

Team Swiss held onto the 2-1 lead until mid way through the second period when Canada failed to score despite a 1:56 two-man advantage. Rüthemann gave the Swiss a two-goal lead just 12 seconds after killing the penalty. A late second-period tally by Martin Plüss and an early third-period score from Conne extended Switzerland’s lead to 5-1. The Canadians fought back hard. Andy Schneider of the Hamburg Freezers made it 5-2 at 8:30 of the third period. Hnat Domenichelli, who plays for Ambri Piotta of the Swiss league, tallied with under four minutes to go. But 5-3 was as close as the Canadians could get.

“We played a great game,” said Canadian head coach Dave King. “We were really happy with our offensive game and generated a lot of chances. But we just couldn't solve their goalie (Ronnie Rueger). But to watch the way we competed tonight, I really feel good about this team. I'm impressed with these guys."

Roberts lifts Team USA to win

With 3,123 in attendance at the Preussag Arena, David Roberts of the Berlin Eisbären scored in regulation and converted the game-winning attempt in the penalty shootout to lift Team USA to a 2-1 win over the hometown Germans. Pat Mikesch also scored in the shootout while all German shooters failed.

Roberts made it 1-0 at 15:03 of the opening period, fooling German netminder Robert Müller (Krefeld Pinguine) with a bad-angle shot on the man advantage. Germany evened the score 1:51 into the middle frame when Daniel Kreutzer (DEG Metro Stars) redirected a point shot from Jochen Molling (Hamburg Freezers) past US goaltender Alex Westlund. The third period and overtime both went scoreless.