WJCH: Semi-Finals Set, Team Canada Advances Over Switzerland

Team Canada made it closer for longer than most fans would have liked, but in the end scored a convincing 4-1 win over Switzerland in the quarterfinal of the 2013 IIHF World Junior Championships.

Griffin Reinhart opened the scoring and assisted on Curtis Lazar’s third period insurance goal to lead the way offensively for Canada, while Anthony Mantha continued to light the lamp, scoring the winner on a second period penalty shot.  Derrick Pouliot scored with just under 7 minutes left to ice the game.  The lone blemish for goalie Zach Fucale was a deflection goal that got past him with 1 second left in the second period that kept the Swiss close.

The win sets up a semi-final matchup on Saturday between Canada and Finland, who downed the Czech Republic 5-3 also on Thursday.

The other semi-final will be a battle between Sweden (who easily beat Slovakia 6-0) and Russia, who knocked off the defending gold medalist USA 5-3 on the strength of 2 5-on 3 goals in the second period from Nikita Zadorov.

Russia and Sweden met just 3 days ago, with Sweden scoring in the last 2 minutes to take the game 3-2.

For Canada, Finland is probably the more inconsistent of the other three semi-finalists, but they cannot be taken lightly as they have defeated the Russians at this tournament already.