Swiss, Canadians, Czechia Advance to Semis | WORLDS

The playoff portion of the IIHF World Championship began Thursday. The Devils were well represented in today’s quarterfinals round.

Canada (Dawson Mercer, Nico Daws) faced Slovakia (Simon Nemec). The winner of that contest will face the winner of Switzerland (Nico Hischier, Jonas Siegenthaler, Akira Schmid) and Germany.

Team USA (Luke Hughes) and Czechia (Ondrej Palat) go head-to-head with the winner taking on the victor of Sweden and Finland.

For all your coverage of the quarterfinals, check out all the scores below!

CANADA 6, SLOVAKIA 3

CAN: Dawson Mercer, Nico Daws (DND)
SVK: Simon Nemec

Nick Paul scored two goals and tallied three points to lift Canada, 6-3, over Slovakia and into the semifinal Saturday against Switzerland.

Dawson Mercer picked up an assist and plus-2 in the contest for Canada, while Nico Daws did not dress.  

Slovakia’s Simon Nemec had an assist and logged 21:06 minutes of ice time. Nemec finished the tournament with one goal, six assists and seven points.

SWITZERLAND 3, GERMANY 1

SUI: Nico Hischier, Jonas Siegenthaler, Akira Schmid (DNP)

Nico Hischier scored the game-winning goal for Switzerland in a 3-1 triumph against Germany to propel the Swiss into the semifinal round.

Hischier was a plus-1 while logging 20:28 minutes for Switzerland. Teammate Jonas Siegenthaler picked up two assists in the contest while finishing with a plus-2 in 21:04 minutes. Goaltender Akira Schmid did not play.

Switzerland will face Canada in the semifinal on Saturday with the winner advancing to the Gold Medal Game.

CZECHIA 1, USA 0

USA: Luke Hughes
CZE: Ondrej Palat

Former Devil Pavel Zacha scored the lone goal of the game and Lukas Dostal stopped all 36 shots against for the shutout in a 1-0 victory that pushes Czechia into the semifinal Saturday against Sweden.

Ondrej Palat was held off the scoresheet put notched two shots in 15:12 minutes of action for host Czechia.

Luke Hughes had one shot in 19:59 minutes of game time for the eliminated United States.  He finished tournament play with two goals and five points, adding a plus-4 and 14 shots.