Canada leads Switzerland after high-scoring first period

Canada leads Switzerland 4-2 at the end of the first period as the two teams battle in the World Junior Championship quarter-finals Wednesday night in Edmonton.

Tyson Foerster opened the scoring just over a minute into the game but the Swiss answered just as fast as Simon Knak beat Dylan Garland to tie things at one goal apiece.

Midway through the period, Jack Thompson pounced on a rebound and beat Swiss goaltender Noah Patenaude to regain the lead for Team Canada. They kept on coming as Logan Stankoven wired one home off the rush to give the hosts a two-goal lead and then Nathan Gaucher scored off a rebound to make it 4-1, chasing Patenaude in favour of Kevin Pasche.

The Swiss got some momentum back just before the end of the frame as Attilio Biasca scored to cut Canada's advantage to two.

The Canadians outshot Switzerland 13-10 over the first 20 minutes.

Canada went a perfect 4-0-0-0 in the preliminary round, securing multi-goal wins over Latvia, Slovakia, Czechia and Finland. 

In other quarter-final action on Wednesday, Finland beat Germany 5-2 and Sweden defeated Latvia 2-1 to advance to the semis. The United States will play Czechia in the final quarter-final matchup on Wednesday with the semis taking place Friday.