Goaltender Igor Shestyorkin made 32 saves to help Russia to a 7-0 shutout win against Switzerland at Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Sunday in a preliminary-round game of the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship.
Russia (1-1-0-0) moved into second place with five points in Group B and trails Sweden by one point. Switzerland (1-0-0-1) dropped to third place in the group.
Shestyorkin (New York Rangers) was impressive in his first start of the tournament, holding his ground when Russia was outshot 14-4 in the second period.
Russian forward Pavel Buchnevich (Rangers) had one goal and two assists. Forwards Ivan Barbashev (St. Louis Blues) and Vladislav Kamenev (Nashville Predators) each had two points.
"It was a pretty tough game for us," Barbashev said, according to the IIHF website. "In the first period, we played really well. In the second period, we let up and took too many penalties, but we did a good job on penalty-killing. In the third, we played like in the first."
Defenseman Rushan Rafikov (Calgary Flames) and forward Alexander Dergachyov (2015 draft eligible) each scored in the first period before Buchnevich gave Russia a 3-0 lead heading into the second.
Sergei Tolchinsky (Carolina Hurricanes) gave Russia a 4-0 lead 15:29 into the second period following a 5-on-3 opportunity for Switzerland.
Forward Alexander Sharov made it 5-0 after Swiss forward Kevin Fiala (Predators) was given a 10-minute misconduct for an illegal check to the head/neck area at 16:20 of the second period. Fiala scored two goals in Switzerland's 5-2 win against the Czech Republic on Saturday.
Kamenev and Vyacheslav Leshenko capped the scoring for Russia in the third period.
Swiss defenseman Phil Baltisberger was taken off the ice on a stretcher at 11:54 of the second period after Russian forward Anatoli Golyshev elbowed him in the head. Golyshev received a game misconduct for the hit.
Russia will play Sweden at Air Canada Centre on Monday. Switzerland returns to action against Denmark on Tuesday.
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