Surging Kurashev leads Switzerland to convincing win over Denmark

Dec 29, 2018 | 3:15 PM

VANCOUVER — Sweden just keeps finding ways to win in preliminary-round play at the world junior hockey championship.

Adam Boqvist’s goal at 3:51 in overtime gave Sweden a 5-4 win over the United States after the Americans rallied from a 4-0 deficit on Saturday night.

It was Sweden’s 47th win in a row in preliminary-round play at the world juniors. It came after the Americans (2-0-1-0) scored four goals in the final 10:26 of the third period, with the last three all coming from Montreal Canadiens prospect Ryan Poehling.

The Americans were missing star forward Jack Hughes for the second straight game with an undisclosed injury.

Filip Westerlund, Rickard Hugg, Emil Bemstrom and Erik Brannstrom scored for Sweden (2-1-0-0) during regulation at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.

Sweden, which won silver last year, can clinch first in Group B with a win against Kazakhstan on Monday.

The Americans, reigning bronze medallists, face Finland on Monday.

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SWITZERLAND 4 DENMARK 0

VANCOUVER — Philipp Kurashev had a hat trick as Switzerland clinched a spot in the quarterfinals with a win over Denmark at Rogers Arena.

The Chicago Blackhawks prospect has five goals in three games for Switzerland (1-0-1-1).

Simon Le Coultre, a defenceman with the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Moncton Wildcats, also scored for the Swiss, while goalie Luca Hollenstein recorded the shutout.

Denmark (0-0-0-3) hasn’t scored a goal at the tournament and has been outscored a combined 22-0.

The Danes wrap up the round-robin against the Czech Republic on Monday, while Switzerland faces Russia on Sunday.

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FINLAND 5 SLOVAKIA 1

VICTORIA — Finland (2-0-0-1) secured a spot in the quarterfinals by dumping winless Slovakia (0-0-0-3).

Henri Jokiharju, Santeri Virtanen, Ville Heinola, Anton Lundell and Oskari Laaksonen scored for the Finns.

Finland outshot Slovakia 23-18.

The Finns face the Americans in the Group B round-robin finale for both teams on Monday.

Slovakia faces winless Kazakhstan on Sunday with the loser likely headed to the relegation round.

CANADA 5 CZECH REPUBLIC 1

VANCOUVER — Canada scored two power-play goals to take sole possession of first place in Group A.

Morgan Frost had a goal and an assist, while Maxime Comtois, Brett Leason, Alexis Lafreniere and MacKenzie Entwistle also scored for Canada (3-0-0-0).

Goaltender Michael DiPietro stopped 23 shots for Canada.

Ondrej Machala scored the lone goal for the Czech Republic (0-1-0-2).

Canada concludes round-robin play on Monday against Russia.

The Canadian Press