Niedermayer not surprised by Swiss challenge

Friday, 02.19.2010 / 1:21 AM / All-Access Vancouver

By Dan Rosen - NHL.com Senior Writer

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VANCOUVER -- Nobody on Team Canada has done more winning than Scott Niedermayer, and the veteran defenseman was not at all surprised at how hard Canada had to work just to pull out a shootout win Thursday over Switzerland.

Niedermayer, who played a game-high 23 minutes and 10 seconds against the Swiss, gave his thoughts to NHL.com shortly after coming off the ice.

Here is what he had to say:

NHL.com: Are you surprised at how hard this win was?

Niedermayer: No. We knew they were going to be a good skating team and we sort of let our guard down in the second period. It wasn't the type of game that we need to play, so we need to improve on that.

NHL.com: Did you think you would tire them out in the third period and eventually get the goal?

Niedermayer: If we kept playing the way we wanted to, yes. I thought in the third we came to play. We had the shots. They had some good shifts in our zone for sure, but there is room for improvement. That's what this tournament is about and that's what we talked about before we came.

NHL.com: Did you guys feel the pressure tonight?

Niedermayer: Ah, it's a round-robin game. Right now you're trying to get your game together and obviously position yourselves as best you can. We want to do well and we feel we could have played better than we did tonight. We're going to work on that in practice and try to get better.

NHL.com: Finally, on Jonas Hiller, your goalie in Anaheim, any surprise with how well he played?

Niedermayer: I have seen it before. We knew that would be the case. We could have done a better job of maybe directing more pucks and getting bodies there, but he played great.

Contact Dan Rosen at [email protected]

Niedermayer not surprised by Swiss challenge

By Dan Rosen - NHL.com Senior Writer

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