Eleven players contributed points as the U.S. National Junior Team earned a 10-1 victory over Switzerland Wednesday in its third of four preliminary round games at the 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship in Helsinki.
[scg_html_wjc2016]With the win, Team USA secured a spot in the tournament quarterfinals, which will take place Jan. 2.
The U.S. will finish play in the preliminary round Dec. 31 at 9 a.m. EDT against Denmark.
“I thought it was our best game of the tournament overall,” said Team USA coach Ron Wilson in a news release. “We did a lot of good things and had contributions from everyone, which is certainly nice to see.”
Five players had three or more points in the game, led by Auston Matthews with four (2-2-4) and Matthew Tkachuk (2-1-3), Christian Dvorak (1-2-3), Boston College’s Colin White (1-2-3) and Michigan’s Zach Werenski (1-2-3) each with three.
Matthews was named the U.S. Player of the Game.
Team USA goalies Alex Nedeljkovic and Brandon Halverson combined on a 27-save effort.
The U.S. is 2-0-0-1 and can finish from second to fourth in Group A depending upon how Thursday’s games finish. If the U.S. defeats Denmark in regulation, it will finish second in Group A and play its quarterfinal game against the third-place team in Group B.
