Patrick Fischer and Lars Weibel, respectively coach and director of the national teams, recently admitted that the situation of goalkeepers concerned them less than two years ago. Because yes, the succession of Leonardo Genoni and Reto Berra is an important subject.
Only today with boys such as Akira Schmid or Connor Hughes in North America, but also Sandro Aeschlimann, Ludovic Waeber or Stéphane Charlin in the National League, Switzerland will not find itself “naked” when the legends will withdraw.
For the inaugural part of the Euro Hockey Tour in Switzerland, Patrick Fischer entrusted the net to Stéphane Charlin. In Emmental, it is also said that the word impassable is now called Stéphane Charlin. And it couldn’t be more logical if we look at the statistics of the Langnau Tigers goalkeeper this season. In 18 matches, the Geneva goalkeeper, who will return to the Eagles from the 2025/26 season, has a save percentage of 95.21% and 1.61 goals conceded per game. So far, Charlin has only capitulated 29 times. Mad.
Thursday evening against Sweden, the last defense of the Tigers started the game on the same basis. Solid in front of his cage, sometimes lucky with a shot on the posts, Charlin managed a first third that lived up to his reputation. Then there was this middle third where Switzerland conceded four goals in 11 minutes.
So when chatting with the 24-year-old goalkeeper after the match, there was a bit of irony in analyzing this sequence where he almost conceded more goals in a few minutes than during the season. “I admit, I had a bit of a down period, it’s another level,” he notes. “There are better players and it’s true that I wasn’t at my best during these eleven minutes.”
Very strict with himself, the goalkeeper of the Swiss team does not have much to reproach himself for in this meeting, even if it is obvious that he could have kept his team in the match depending on the circumstances. . “By taking away these eleven minutes, we put in a very good performance against a very good team,” he analyzes. “There’s more than just things to throw away. In the third period, we dominated.”
While it had managed to curb the Swedish attacks for two minutes while double numerically inferior, Switzerland was unable to build on this. “We lost the momentum, regrets Charlin. They had power plays and we were unable to score in numerical superiority. It was against the grain of what we wanted to build after having come out without difficulty two minutes at 3 against 5.”
Like any good goalkeeper, the Genevan quickly put this match aside to concentrate on the next. With three positions available for the month of May and the World Cup in Herning, we also have to think further.
“Every player wants to make an impression in every match, and sometimes we don’t succeed,” he believes. Before the match, I motivate myself to put in a good performance, but after the match, I try not to think about it too much. I’m already wondering what I can improve on.
We can bet that if he returns in front of the net during this tournament, Charlin will be keen to once again become the wall he is in Emmental.
