The semifinals were set for the World Junior A Challenge (WJAC) in a day that featured a shocking upset.
The United States dominated from start to finish against team Switzerland in their quarter-final win Wednesday afternoon.
The scoring started within the first couple minutes of the period. Clayton Phillips put the puck off the post and into the net to give USA a 1-0 lead.
The Swiss took a penalty and Zach Solow capitalized by scoring just over 30-seconds in. Hank Crone and Brannon McManus also got on the board for the United States.
The Swiss were held to just two shots in the period, as the first ended with the USA up 4-0.
The second period saw more of the same. United States defenceman Alex Green got on the score sheet just 54-seconds in. Ethen Frank and Tarek Baker followed suits to give the US a 7-0 lead after 40-minutes.
The United States scored two more in the third, off the stick of Alex Limoges and Mick Messner to go on to win the hockey game 9-0.
Solow was named the Player of the Game.
“I thought I played good. I could always play better, but I just stuck to the game plan and tried to work my butt off,” Solow said of his performance.
With this win the United States advanced to the semifinals to take on Russia Thursday at 3:30 p.m. Team USA captain Matt Hellickson said his team would be preparing for the matchup.
“We're going to keep doing what we do. We're going to get a lot of rest, make sure we stretch right here after this game, and probably do a pre-scout tomorrow afternoon at some point just to get ready for them.”
The Wednesday evening game saw the Czech Republic playing against Canada West for a chance to take on Canada East in the semifinals.
The Czechs got the start they wanted, scoring two goals in the first period. Radovan Pavlik and Daniel Kurovsky got credit for the goals.
The Czech Republic held this lead until the start of the third, when Canada West had a two-man advantage.
Canada West captain Cale Makar notched his team's first point 14-seconds into the final frame, and Jordan Kawaguchi followed up with a goal of his own 22-seconds later. The game was now tied 2-2.
At 14:40 of the third period, the Czech team took a hit to the head penalty.
Four seconds into that power play, Carter Turnbull found the back of the net and gave Canada West their first lead of the game.
With just 4.8 seconds left, the Czech Republic had pulled their goalie. Kristian Reichel got the puck to Tomas Havranek, who scored for the Czech Republic with 1.5 seconds left in the game. The Czechs were still alive.
A 10-minute overtime period solved nothing, and the game went to a shootout. The first five Czech shooters were stopped, until Reichel came down the ice and managed to get the puck past the Canada West goaltender.
Riese Gaber was stopped by Czech Republic goaltender Petr Kvaca, sending the Czech team to the semifinals for the first time in the WJAC.
Reichel was ecstatic to be a member of this Czech Republic team, who is shocking the world.
“It's awesome because we weren't expecting anything. We just tried to play it game by game see what we could do. We beat the USA and we beat Canada (West); Thursday we have Canada East so we will see. All the games start 0-0 so we will have our heads up.”
Canada West will play in the fifth place game against Switzerland Friday afternoon.
