Russia beats Switzerland to remain perfect at world juniors

switzerland-russia

Switzerland's Nicolas Muller, from left to right, skates to the bench from the penalty box as Russia's Nikita Shashkov, Pavel Shen, Stepan Starkov, Alexander Romanov and Alexander Alexeyev celebrate Alexeyev's goal during third period IIHF world junior hockey championship action in Vancouver. (Darryl Dyck/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

VANCOUVER — Kirill Slepets broke a tie short-handed early in the third period and Russia added three more goals to beat Switzerland 7-4 on Sunday night in the world junior hockey championship.

Russia kept pace with Canada at 3-0 in round-robin play, setting up a showdown Monday night against the defending champion Canadians for the Group A title.

Alexander Alexeyev, Pavel Shen and Vitali Kravtsov added goals for Russia in the third period. Kirill Marchenko, Dmitri Samorukov and Grigori Denisenko also scored for Russia, and Danil Tarasov stopped two penalty shots.

Marco Lehmann scored twice for Switzerland, and Valentin Nussbaumer and Yannick Bruschweiler added goals. The Swiss have earned a spot in the quarterfinals.

In Group B in Victoria, Slovakia faced Kazakhstan in a late game.

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