Now Schelling is hoping to add to the World Championship bronze she has taken with the Swiss two years ago, and hopes that she can build on a victory that she rates as the best of her career to date.

“We beat Russia in a quarter-final in 2012 [at the Worlds], but this was definitely one of the biggest wins we’ve ever had,” she said. “Because it’s the Olympics it’s undoubtedly the biggest game of my career. Even winning a bronze with this team before wasn’t as special as this.”

Swiss coach Rene Kammerer is also delighted to have a goalie a good as Schelling to call upon. “Some years ago I was at a coaching symposium where Dave King talked for 90 minutes about offensive play of a team, and the very last sentence he said was ‘you can forget all this if you don’t have a good goalie’,” he recalled. “For us it’s the same. We need a good goalkeeper. Our team needs to feel confidence [in the goal] and we get this from Florence. She played extremely well against Russia and exuded confidence. She always give us the feeling that we can win the game.”

The coach also paid tribute to her leadership qualities: “Florence knows what it takes to win big games. That’s something she brings in when it’s needed and the team is listening to her.”

Schelling’s team-mates share that high opinion of their goalie. Stefanie Marty, scorer of the opening goal, said: “It’s great to play with her and to know you have such an outstanding goalie that you can always rely on. It’s an amazing boost to know that she’s always there and against Russia she had absolutely everything.”

Schelling herself prefers to share the credit for the Swiss team spirit, praising the locker room for giving everyone a lift during the tough moments of the clash with Russia.

“We knew they would come out very strong with all the people in the stands cheering them on. We were getting ready for that – that’s what we were talking about whenever we were back in the locker room,” she said. “During the second intermission we knew we had to be ready for those first couple of minutes. They wanted that one goal to tie the game but the atmosphere among us in the locker room and on the ice was amazing.”

Next up it’s Canada, a team which put 69 shots on Schelling’s goal in a 5-0 victory at the start of the tournament. And, in a refreshing change from the usual ‘take each game as it comes’ talk, Schelling admitted that the current Olympic format – with Switzerland in a ‘group of death’ – meant that the QF stage was the crucial moment.

“We were preparing for that quarter-final for a while,” she said. “We knew we might lose all our games in the group and end up in a quarter. We prepared for that, and this was the game for us. Last year [at the World Championship] we were in this position and lost to Russia so it’s good to show what we can do at an Olympics.”

If that suggests that Switzerland is not brimming with optimism before facing Canada, coach Kammerer is already plotting a Plan B to match the Ottawa 2012 medal-winning achievement. “We will enjoy the semi-final game but we have to be ready and to fight to play against such a team. Our Plan A is to win this game, our Plan B to win a medal is the bronze medal game.”

In both plans, though, another big game from Schelling will be a vital component.