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Niederreiter on Swiss roster: ‘I think we have a great team’

IHOCKEY-WORLD-SWE-SUI

Switzerland’s Nino Niederreiter (R) celebrates scoring with his teammates during the preliminary round match Sweden vs Switzerland at the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships on May 3, 2013 in Stockholm. AFP PHOTO/JONATHAN NACKSTRAND +++ RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE +++ (Photo credit should read JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images)

AFP/Getty Images

Confidence is usually a great thing to have. Minnesota Wild forward Nino Niederreiter has plenty of that going for him and he believes in his Switzerland team as they head into the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Niederreiter tells Brian Murphy of the St. Paul Pioneer Press he’s excited for his team at this year’s Olympics and believes they’ve got a chance to do well.

“I think we have a great team, actually,” said Niederreiter. “We have a lot of strong defensemen and two great goalies. It definitely helps our confidence, and the experience, there’s going to be nothing like it.”

The goalies he’s referring to are Jonas Hiller of the Anaheim Ducks and Reto Berra of the Calgary Flames. Add in former Dallas Stars goalie Tobias Stephan and that’s a solid trio. With Roman Josi, Mark Streit, Raphael Diaz, and Yannick Weber on defense, maybe Niederreiter has a point.

Also going for the Swiss is their success at the 2013 World Championships. There, Switzerland made it to the gold medal game before losing to Sweden.

It won’t be easy in the opening round for Switzerland as they’ll have Sweden, Latvia, and the Czech Republic in their group for the round-robin. Add in Switzerland’s previous success at international tournaments and they won’t be flying under anyone’s radar now.

Follow @JoeYerdonPHT