Swiss toppled by lowly Kazakhstan

ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA — Switzerland suffered a 3-2 shootout loss to Kazakhstan at the world hockey championship Saturday. Despite leading 51-27 in shots, the Swiss struggled to beat Kazakh goaltender Vitaly Kolesnik before Canada-born wing Nigel Dawes secured the win for Kazakhstan in the shootout.

Also, Slovakia won 4-1 against Hungary. The Hungarian team is in the top level of the world championship for only the second time since 1939 and was slated to play Canada early on Sunday.

In the Moscow group of the preliminary round, the Czech Republic beat Latvia 4-3 in a shootout. The Czechs previously beat host Russia 3-0 on Friday.

Denmark began by pasting Norway 3-0 on two Nicklas Jensen goals, while Danish goalkeeper Sebastian Dahm made 44 saves for the shutout.

France began with a win in the St. Petersburg group, beating Germany 3-2 in a shootout in which 40-year-old goaltender Cristobal Huet saved all three German shots.