OTTAWA, Ontario — Boston College teammates James Hagens and Ryan Leonard each scored twice, and the defending champion United States routed Switzerland 7-2 on Thursday in the world junior hockey quarterfinals.
Boston University’s Brandon Svoboda, Notre Dame’s Danny Nelson and Denver’s Zeev Buium also scored for the Group A champion U.S.
“I thought we played a good back and forth game with them, got pucks behind them and went to work,” Svoboda said. “We’re a fast team, and when we play like that, we’re hard to beat. We’re watching video every day, and if we can keep improving little things then we’ll continue to be successful.”
Hampton Slukynsky of Western Michigan made 17 saves, and BC’s Gabe Perreault had three assists.
“Overall, I thought we were ready to play and did what we needed to do against a good opponent in Switzerland,” U.S. coach David Carle of Denver said. “We’ll get ready now for the semifinals and look forward to the challenge in front of us.”
Nils Rhyn and Andro Kaderli scored for Switzerland.
Earlier, Group B winner Sweden beat Latvia 3-2. David Edstrom, Zeb Forsfjall and Anton Wahlberg scored for Sweden, and Melker Thelin made 11 saves. Eriks Mateiko scored twice for Latvia, and Linards Feldbergs stopped 47 shots.
In late games, Finland faced Slovakia, and Canada met Czechia.
In the relegation game, Maxim Schafer scored twice to help Germany beat Kazakhstan 4-3. Germany secured a spot next year in the tournament, while Kazakhstan was demoted to the Division I Group A tournament.
