ST. PAUL, Minn. — Kimi Kerbler scored two goals and Switzerland beat Germany 4-0 on Tuesday at Grand Casino Arena at the World Junior Championships.
Switzerland (1-0-0-2) advances to the quarterfinals by eliminating Germany, which lost all four of its Group A matches 22-5. The Swiss play Slovakia on Wednesday to complete the preliminary round. In the knockout round, the Germans will play Denmark without a win.
Kerbler capitalized on assists from Jan Meier and Niklas Blessing to score his first goal of the tournament, giving Switzerland a 1-0 lead at 11:42 of the first period. Leon Mugli and Lars Steiner scored Jamiro Reber's first goal less than 90 seconds later – on the power play – to give them a two-goal lead.
Kerbler scored unassisted 68 seconds into the second period, and Ludwig Johnson scored his first goal five minutes later for a 4–0 lead.
Switzerland faced goalkeeper Lennart Neisse with 47 shots, while Germany managed only 20 shots against Elijah Neuenschwander.
In Group B at the 3M Arena in Mariucci, Krisjanis Sarts scored late in the first period and Alberts Smits scored twice on the power play in the second to help Latvia beat Denmark 6-3 and secure a place in the quarter-finals.
Latvia (1-0-1-1) concludes Group B play against the Czech Republic on Wednesday.
Antons Macievskis, Bruno Osmanis (power play) and Kristers Ansons added goals for Latvia. Osmanis and Olivers Murnieks each contributed two assists, while Ansons and Smits contributed one each.
Oliver Larsen scored for Denmark (0-0-0-4) and William Bundgaard provided the assist. Anton Linde scored with 1:18 left. Denmark lost 28-8 in four preliminary matches.
