Russia, Finland notch wins at championships

BUFFALO, N.Y.—Artur Kayumov and Georgi Ivanov scored third-period goals to lead Russia to a 5-2 victory over Switzerland at world junior hockey championships on Thursday.

Kim Kostin and Vladislav Syomin each had a goal and an assist, Andrei Svechnikov had two assists and Vitali Abramov scored an empty-netter for the Russians, who are 1-1 in preliminary play after losing to the Czech Republic on the opening day of the tournament.

Marco Miranda and Ken Jager scored for Switzerland. Philip Wuthrich made 32 saves. Jager’s goal tied the game at 2-2 early in the third period before Kaymov scored the go-ahead goal with 8:58 remaining.

Earlier, Juuso Valimaki and Henri Jokiharju both had a goal and assist for Finland in a 4-1 victory over Denmark.

Joona Koppanen and Aapeli Rasanen scored the other goals to give Finland a 2-0 lead in the first seven minutes. Miro Heiskanen had two assists and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen needed to make just six saves. Finland improved to 1-1 in group play.

Kasper Krog stopped 58 shots for Denmark. Nikolaj Krag scored Denmark’s first of the tournament following a 9-0 loss to the United States in the opener.

Krag scored on a power play to make it 2-1 early in the second period. Finland pulled away when Valimaki and Jokihariu scored two minutes apart late in the period.

The U.S. faced Slovakia in its second game on Thursday night before meeting Canada at the Bills’ New Era Field today.