USA thumps Switzerland to bounce back at world juniors

A day after a crushing loss to Slovakia, USA is back in the win column with a 5-1 win over Switzerland.

The United States now sits comfortably in second place in Group B with six points. They’ll wrap up action against Finland on Saturday in what could end up being for the top spot in the group.

The loss was Switzerland’s first of the tournament, keeping them at four points. They still sit comfortably in the Group B playoff race, sitting one points ahead of Slovakia and three over Latvia. Switzerland will close things out with Slovakia on Saturday, which will decide placement ahead of the playoff crossover.

A goal late in the first period gave USA something to smile about in the first. With the two teams playing a close game, Jimmy Snuggerud scored at 18:05 off of a Logan Cooley feed to score in close, making it 1-0.

Cooley then earned one on the power play, with Rutger McGroarty going between the legs to set Cooley up at 25:49. Snuggerud scored his second at 36:40 and Tyler Boucher scored his third of the tournament less than two minutes later to expand USA’s advantage.

But fortunately for the Swiss, they were able to pot one late in the period to give them something to cheer about. Attilio Biasca scored at 39:32 with a wrist shot that clipped goaltender Trey Augustine and in for the 4-1 goal.

The Americans kept the pressure on in the third, but only a single goal made it in. That went to Luke Hughes, who received the puck after some nice moves from Sean Behrens and fired it past Alessio Beglieri for the 5-1 American goal.