Great Britain produced a spirited performance against hosts and number two seeds Switzerland, but were beaten 4-1 at the 2026 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship at the Swiss Life Arena in Zurich.
Robert Lachowicz became the eighth GB player to reach 100 international appearances and was presented with his milestone cap. He was also named captain for the night and was handed his jersey with the C by Robert Dowd in the locker room ahead of the game.
Mat Robson, who made a 37 saves, started between the pipes with Ben Bowns as back-up, while Sam Lyne replaced Johnny Curran in the line-up.
The Swiss, who have six NHLers on their roster, are one of the favourites to win the tournament and secured their fifth straight victory in Group A.
Switzerland lead at first intermission
Robson turned away Timo Meier’s shot on the powerplay and made a huge point-blank pad save on Theo Rochette. GB went close short-handed but Reto Berra denied Ben Davies on the breakaway.
Nino Niederreiter burst clear of the GB defence to put the hosts ahead (05:05) and Roman Josi hit the inside of the right-hand post.
Robson made two superb saves to stop Damien Riat and Sven Andrighetto on Switzerland’s second powerplay of the night.
Josh Waller celebrates with his team-mates after scoring for Great Britain against Switzerland at the 2026 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Zurich
Waller scores for GB but Swiss extend advantage
The hosts forced a turnover and Nico Hischier went short-side from the left-circle for Switzerland’s second (21:02).
A neat move up the ice saw Brett Perlini force a pad save out of Berra as GB went close, but the home side soon scored their third when the puck was deflected into the path of Simon Knak who fired one-time past Robson (28:01).
GB broke two-on-one as Liam Kirk saw his shot but he cleverly fed his rebound to Josh Waller who scored on his backhand into an unguarded net (34:53).
Switzerland secure fifth win to stay top of Group A
Mark Richardson and Ollie Betteridge made huge blocks on the penalty-kill and Robson made a big stop on Meier as the powerplay came to an end.
Robson made two great close-range saves but Niederreiter completed the scoring when he put home the rebound (52:53).
Kirk thought he’d scored a freak late goal which saw him dump the puck off the right boards and deceive Berra, but the Swiss netminder’s blushes were spared when the goal was washed-out for offside.
GB are straight back into action tomorrow (Friday 22nd May) against Finland at 20:20 (19:20 BST).
2026 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship: Group A in Zurich
Saturday 16th May: Great Britain 2-5 Austria
Sunday 17th May: Great Britain 1-5 USA
Tuesday 19th May: Hungary 5-0 Great Britain
Thursday 21st May: Switzerland 4-1 Great Britain
Friday 22nd May: Finland v Great Britain 20:20 (19:20 BST)
Sunday 24th May: Great Britain v Latvia 16:20 (15:20 BST)
Monday 25th May: Germany v Great Britain 20:20 (19:20 BST)