Germany, which has a record of 0-2-2, will face the unbeaten Finnish team in its final game Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Swiss will advance to the quarter-finals. Swiss goalie David Aebischer recorded 26 saves while Germany's Olaf Kolzig turned aside 23 shots.
After a scoreless opening stanza, the Germans drew first blood at 2:20 of the second period when Sven Felski of the Berlin Eisbären knocked home the rebound of defenseman Christian Ehrhoff's point shot.
"We went out there to win the game," said German defenseman Christian Ehrhoff of the San Jose Sharks. "We made two mistakes the Swiss took advantage of. We played very hard, but that's the way it goes."
It actually was Germany's sluggish defense pairing of Rob Leask (Eisbären Berlin) and Sascha Goc (Hannover Scorpions) that missed their assignments on Switzerland's two second-period goals.
Switzerland tied it up at 8:17 when Patrick Fischer stormed through the German defense and was denied by Kolzig. He took the rebound though and centered it from behind the goal line to Flavien Conne, who was all alone in front of the net as three German skaters had rushed beyond the goal line. Rob DiPietro put the Swiss up 2-1 with 1:55 left in the middle frame. Coming out of the corner, he skated unabated through the German defense and rifled a low wrist shot inside the goal post.
The Swiss defense did not look much better when Germany's Tino Boos of the Kölner Haie made it 2-2 with only 7:52 left in the game. With defenseman Beat Forster standing next to him, Boos got three whacks at a rebound.
It was also Forster who was assessed a hooking penalty two minutes later. But the Germans failed to generate any quality opportunities. In a last-gasp effort, Krupp pulled Kolzig with 12 seconds remaining, but it was too little too late.
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