Canada handed 1st loss at men's hockey worlds, falling 6-3 to unbeaten Switzerland
Head coach Claude Julien cites poor special teams play; U.S. improves to 4-1
Dean Kukan and Nico Hischier scored power-play goals and Denis Malgin had two assists as Switzerland defeated Canada 6-3 on Saturday at the world hockey championship in Finland.
Michael Fora, Jonas Siegenthaler, Pius Suter and Timo Meier, into an empty net, also scored for the unbeaten Swiss (5-0-0-0) at the Helsinki Ice Hall.
Kent Johnson opened the scoring for the Canadians (4-0-0-1), who suffered their first loss of the preliminary round. Adam Lowry and Drake Batherson had the other goals and Mathew Barzal added two assists.
"The Swiss have been playing well so far in this tournament and they showed it again tonight," said Canada head coach Claude Julien. "Our special-teams play was not great today. We did not score on the power play. We did not do a great job on the penalty kill and that kind of dug us into a hole.
"We had a five-minute power play that we did not capitalize on and that kind of thing can come back to haunt you later in the game."
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Switzerland sits atop Group A as the lone undefeated team left in the championship.
Canada goaltender Logan Thompson made 21 saves. Switzerland outshot Canada 26-25.
Gaudette leads U.S. to 4th win
"It is always disappointing to lose, but I think in the long run it will be a good learning experience for our team," Batherson said. "We always want to win every game, but it did not go our way today."
In other games, Adam Gaudette scored in overtime for the United States to beat Sweden 3-2.
Gaudette was involved in all three of the U.S. goals as he scored the first and assisted Nate Schmidt for the second. The win improved the Americans to 4-1 overall; the lone loss came against host Finland.
The Olympic gold medallist Finns lead Group B after they recorded their fifth win in six games by 3-0 over Austria, outshooting their opponent 39-19.
Elsewhere, the Czech Republic beat Norway 4-1, Denmark beat France 3-0, and 18-year-old Olympic tournament MVP Juraj Slafkovsky had two assists as Slovakia beat Italy 3-1.
Canada will play Denmark on Monday.
With files from The Associated Press
