VANCOUVER — Switzerland had numerous chances to upset Russia at the world juniors and couldn't get it done.
Russia scored four times in the third period to blow the game open after gifting Switzerland golden opportunities earlier in the game en route to a 7-4 win on Sunday in preliminary-round action at Vancouver's Rogers Arena.
With the game tied 3-3 late in the second period, Switzerland was awarded two penalty shots on the same play after Russian defencemen Dmitri Samorukov tripped Swiss forward Marco Lehmann twice on a breakaway — first at the blue line and again closer to the net.
Lehmann was stopped on the first attempt and Philipp Kurashev couldn't beat Danil Tarasov on the second one to keep the score tied with 3:05 to go in the period.
Ivan Muranov then took a five-minute major and game misconduct for butt-ending late in the second only for Russia's Kirill Slepets to score shorthanded early in the third for a 4-3 lead.
Samorukov, Kirill Marchenko, Alexander Alexeyev, Pavel Shen, Vitali Kravtsov and Grigori Denisenko also scored for Russia (3-0-0), which will face Canada (3-0-0) on Monday for top seed in Group A. Tarasov finished with 27 saves for the win.
Lehmann struck twice to pace the Swiss (1-2-1) offence while Valentin Nussbaumer and Yannick Bruschweiler had the others. Akira Schmid stopped 34-of-41 shots in defeat.
The Swiss got out to a fast start and led 3-1 midway through the second before the Russians started clawing back.
Switzerland is guaranteed a spot in the tournament quarterfinals, but has to wait for the outcome of Monday's Group A game between the Czech Republic (1-2-0) and Denmark (0-3-0) to know its seeding for the playoff round.
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SLOVAKIA 11 KAZAKHSTAN 2
VICTORIA — Andrej Kollar had a hat trick, and Slovakia scored twice in the game's opening 32 seconds in an easy win over Kazakhstan to secure a spot in the tournament quarterfinals.
Adam Ruzicka and Marcel Dlugos had a pair of goals apiece as Slovakia (1-2-0) picked up its first Group B victory at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.
Pavol Regenda, Adam Liska, Filip Krivosik and Milos Roman rounded out the Slovak offence while Samuel Hlavaj made 16 saves for the win.
Artur Gatiyatov scored his first two goals of the tournament for Kazakhstan (0-3-0), which will play in the relegation round despite having one more preliminary-round game against Sweden.
Demid Yeremeyev and Vladislav Nurek combined to stop 35-of-46 shots in defeat. Yeremeyev started in net for Kazakhstan but was yanked after allowing his third goal against 5:26 into the game and Nurek came on in relief.
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The Canadian Press
