EDMONTON — Finland defeated Switzerland 4-1 in preliminary-round play Sunday afternoon at the world junior hockey championship.

Switzerland's Attilio Biasca opened the scoring at 3:44. Anton Lundell pulled Finland even less than a minute later at 4:20.

Juuso Parssinen gave Finland the lead at 4:53 of the second period. Aku Raty scored an insurance goal at 10:41 of the third and Kasper Simontaival added another at 16:49.

Finland outshot Switzerland 43-14.

Finland opened the tournament Christmas Day with a 5-3 win over Germany. Switzerland dropped a 1-0 decision to Slovakia in its first game.

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CZECH REPUBLIC 2 RUSSIA 0

Lukas Parik stopped 30 shots, and the Czech Repubic (1-1-0) bounced back from a 7-1 loss against Sweden (1-0-0) to upset Russia (1-1-0) -- creating some chaos in the Group B standings with four teams now with a victory each, including the Americans (1-1-0).

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CANADA 3 SLOVAKIA 1

Philip Tomasino had a goal and an assist, Devon Levi made 17 saves for the win on his 19th birthday, and Canada (2-0-0) topped Slovakia (1-1-0) to open the tournament with back-to-back victories.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 27, 2020.