The U.S. Junior Select Team erupted for five goals in the first period en route to a 7-4 victory over Switzerland in the semifinal round of the 2012 World Junior A Challenge on Friday at Mariners Centre in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

The United States advances to Sunday's championship game to face defending champion Canada West at Mariners Centre.

Sheldon Dries, Nicholas Schilkey, Vince Hinostroza, Ryan Fitzgerald and Blake Heinrich scored goals in the opening period, when the U.S. held an 18-9 advantage in shots.

Waterloo Black Hawks defenseman Ian McCoshen, one of the top players eligible for the 2013 NHL Draft in June, will continue his career at Boston College next fall.

McCoshen, who NHL Central Scouting ranked an A-rated skater on its preliminary players to watch list in the United States Hockey League, is currently sidelined with mononucleosis.

In addition to Boston College, the 6-foot-2.5, 207-pound defenseman was also being courted by the University of Nebraska-Omaha, University of Minnesota-Duluth, Ohio State University and the University of North Dakota.

"We have a good freshman class coming in [at Boston College]," McCoshen told NHL.com via email. "When I visited the guys at BC, they really opened up to me and I was able to see how great they are and how fine the hockey program is, as well."

The semifinal round of the 2012 World Junior A Challenge was set on Thursday after Switzerland and Canada East each posted victories in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

The Swiss will take on the United States and Canada East will meet Canada West in the semifinal matches slated Friday. The winner advances to the gold medal game at Mariners Centre on Sunday.

Switzerland, which has reached the final four for the second time in as many tournament appearances, received goals from Shane Conacher, Christoph Bertschy, Robin Leone and Dean Kukan in recording a 4-1 triumph over Russia. Meanwhile, Shane Conacher connected for a pair of power-play goals to lift Canada East to a 4-0 win over Czech Republic. Charlie Finn made 25 saves for the shutout.

NHL Central Scouting's Chris Edwards checked in with NHL.com after the quarterfinal-round matchups on Thursday with his top three players of the evening.

Before Game 3 of the Subway Super Series, Team OHL center Ryan Strome talked about how fast and skilled Russia was.

The Russians demonstrated that vast skill set in the third period, exploding for a pair of goals in a 24-second span to steal a 2-1 win Thursday at the Sleeman Centre in Guelph, Ontario.

Tyler Graovac and Sean Monahan know each other quite well, and the relationship helped the Ottawa 67's teammates combine to score the game's only goal for Team OHL against Russia in Subway Super Series Game 3 at Guelph, Ontario.

With Russia halfway through a power play early in the second, defenseman Andrei Mironov got lazy with the puck at center ice, letting Monahan, the top 2013 NHL Draft prospect, intercept a pass intended for Nail Yakupov.

Monahan skated past Yakupov into the left circle and found Graovac heading to the net. Monahan centered a pass to Graovac, and the OHL's leading goal-scorer and Minnesota Wild prospect made one deke and beat Russia goalie Igor Ustinski at 5:49 of the period.

Russia had a couple of solid chances, including a shorthanded chance for Alexander Khokhlachev early in the period, and a great chance in the high slot for Yakupov. However, Team OHL is outshooting Russia 17-9 after two periods.

Canada goalie Malcolm Subban left the game about halfway through the period after making seven saves. The Boston Bruins prospect was replaced by St. Louis Blues prospect Jordan Binnington, who stopped the two shots he faced in just over eight minutes of action. He'll play the remainder of the game.

Back with more after the third period.

Contact Adam Kimelman at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @NHLAdamK

Russia, playing its third game in four days, looked a step slow in the first period facing Team OHL in Game 3 of the Subway Super Series at Guelph, Ontario.

One starter looked fresh, however: goalie Igor Ustinski, a 2013 NHL Draft prospect. Ustinski stopped everything Team OHL threw at the Russian net and the game remained scoreless after one period.

Each team had a chance to get on the board on a power-play chance, but Ustinski and Team OHL goalie Malcolm Subban, a Boston Bruins prospect, combined to keep the nets well-guarded.

Team OHL outshot Russia, 9-4.

Alexander Khokhlachev, another Bruins prospect, had Russia's best chance, with about four minutes left, when he took a nice cross-ice pass from Kirill Kapustin and had two shots down low, but Subban denied him both times.

Moments later, Russia captain Nail Yakupov was called for kneeing Sean Monahan, but Team OHL couldn't take advantage of their extra-man opportunity, with Brett Ritchie -- who took Team OHL's penalty 5:43 into the game -- having the best chance, but a bouncing puck got past him.

Contact Adam Kimelman at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @NHLAdamK

According to TSN's Bob McKenzie, here's the lineup Team OHL will start with when it faces Russia in Game 3 of the Subway Super Series tonight in Guelph, Ontario.

Tyler Graovac - Boone Jenner - Joshua Leivo

Zach Hall - Ryan Strome - Brett Ritchie

Matt Puempel - Scott Laughton -Zachary Mitchell

Connor McDavid - Sean Monahan - Barclay Goodrow

Cody Ceci - Matthew Finn

Ryan Murphy - Slater Koekkoek

Stuart Percy - Dylan DeMelo

Malcolm Subban will start in goal, with Jordan Binnington backing him up.

The game is live tonight on NHL Network in the United States and Sportsnet in Canada.

Contact Adam Kimelman at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @NHLAdamK

There were several top performances for Canada West and Canada East on Wednesday when each team posted a victory during day three of the 2012 World Junior A Challenge in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

Chris Edwards, NHL Central Scouting

Troy Stecher's power-play goal 1:22 into overtime gave Canada West a 4-3 win over Russia on the final day of preliminary-round play of the tournament, clinching first place in Group A for Canada West. Dalen Hedges scored twice to give Canada East its first victory of the tournament, 4-3 over Switzerland.

NHL Central Scouting's Chris Edwards, who is in Yarmouth scouting the event and taking names, provided NHL.com his daily top three stars of the night.

Troy Stecher's power-play goal 1:22 into overtime gave Canada West a 4-3 win against Russia on Wednesday, the final day of preliminary-round play in the 2012 World Junior A Challenge, in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

The win clinched first place in Group A for Canada West and earned it a bye into the tournament semifinals Friday.

Canada West goalie Jonah Imoo stopped 37 of 40 shots as Russia outshot Canada West 40-19.

Stecher's teammate with the Penticton Vees of the British Columbia Hockey League and fellow 2013 NHL Draft prospect Wade Murphy opened the scoring with a power-play goal 3:34 into the second, but Russia responded with goals two minutes apart to take a 2-1 lead. Seb Lloyd scored with 15 seconds left in the second to tie the game.

Aaron Hadley put Canada West up 3-2 two minutes into the third, but Russia's Sergei Stetsenko, a C-rated skater in NHL Central Scouting's preliminary rankings of players to watch for this year's draft, scored at 14:09 of the third to force overtime.

Yannik Rathgeb scored in the seventh round of a shootout to give Switzerland a 5-4 victory over the United States on the second day of the 2012 Under-18 Four Nations Tournament on Wednesday at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube in Michigan.

Rathgeb, a 5-foot-11, 165-pound wing, finished the game with two goals for the Swiss.

Shane Eiserman connected for a shorthanded goal 9:02 into the third to give the United States (1-0-1) a 4-3 lead in the third period before Rathgeb connected for a power-play goal 24 seconds later to knot the contest.

Following a scoreless five-minute overtime, during which each team was credited with two shots, the game entered a shootout. Eiserman, who was named Team USA's player of the game, and Tyler Kelleher each had a goal and one assist in the loss.