Americans, Swedens move on to semifinals at the World Juniors

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There were no surprises in the early games of Quarterfinals Thursday at the world junior hockey championship.

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James Hagens and Ryan Leonard each scored twice to lead the United States to a 7-2 victory over Switzerland at Canadian Tire Centre, while Sweden remained unbeaten by ending the pesky Latvians’ run by a 3-2 count at TD Place.

In the relegation game, also at CTC, Germany defeated Kazakhstan 4-3. Kazakhstan’s place in next year’s world juniors will be taken by Denmark.

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It was still too early to tell what semifinal matchups would be on the weekend as re-seeding will be done following the Finland-Slovakia and Czechia-Canada games scheduled to start at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., respectively, on Thursday.

The semifinals will be held on Saturday, leading into Sunday’s medal games. All weekend showdowns will be played at CTC.

In the favourable matchup Canada would have earned by beating the Americans on New Year’s Eve, the U.S. also received goals from Brandon Svoboda,  Danny Nelson and Zeev Buium. Nils Rhyn and Andro Kaderli scored for the Swiss.

The U.S. rested No. 1 goalie Trey Augustine and gave the start  to backup Hampton Slukynsky, a fourth-round pick of the National Hockey League’s Los Angeles Kings.

The U.S. went in front 4-1 in the first period on goals by Svoboda, Hagens, Leonard and Nelson.

Meanwhile, Sweden had a 3-0 lead midway through its game before Eriks Mateiko, the hero of Latvia’s preliminary-round win over Canada, scored two second-period goals to make things interesting.

Sweden, which outshot Latvia 50-13, held an 18-2 edge in the third period, but, as was the case against Canada, Latvian goalie Linards Feldbergs turned in a sensational performance.

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