Switzerland scored four unanswered goals in the second period to erase a 2-1 deficit and defeat Norway 6-2. With the win, the Swiss qualify for the quarter-finals that begin next Tuesday. The loss eliminates Norway from the playoffs. They will finish fifth in the group and now play the fifth-place team in Group A on the morning of 4 January, hoping to avoid relegation.

Norway has never beaten the Swiss in four games all time at the World Juniors.

"We focused on staying out of the penalty box," said Swiss captain Jonas Taibel, who had a goal and three assists on a productive night. "Play five-on-five, bring the puck to the net, and good things will happen. Our second period was good, but we have to step it up against the Czechs tomorrow and we still have some things to improve. We need to make the easy play, and if it's not there, get out of the d-zone. But it was a good game for our confidence."

Discipline, penalties, penalty killing--call it what you will--were Norway’s undoing again today They entered the game having surrendered a whopping nine power-play goals, most in the tournament, and they gave up two more today (and a third just seconds after the expiration of another penalty).

"It's not our first time running into penalty trouble," admitted Norway's captain, Johannes Lokkeberg. "We talked about it before the game. We weren't supposed to do that today, but we did anyway. We're lacking discipline, making bad decisions. We have to play five-on-five."
 

The game started with abandon rather than caution. Petter Vesterheim and Patrik Dalen had good, early chances for Norway, but they both shot low and Alessio Beglieri made the pad save. The Swiss opened the scoring at 6:05 when Rico Gredig fed Simon Meier going to the net. Meier outwaited Markus Stensrud and slipped the puck in the open side for his first goal of the tournament.

But when Swiss defender Leon Muggli was given a major and game misconduct, the team lost one of its ice-time leaders and faced early adversity. No matter. It was the Swiss that had the best scoring chances, two from Taibel who was stoned by Stensud on a breakaway and later hit the post.

By this point, a Swiss victory looked inevitable, but Norway had other ideas. Noah Steen wired a puck off the crossbar on a later power play, and the Norwegians got on the board at 17:16 on another advantage. Martin Johnsen flew down the right wing, cut behind the Swiss defence, and roofed a shot that made it 1-1. 

Just 54 seconds later, they took the lead when Dalen tried to pass to a teammate at the top of the crease. The puck was blocked but came right back to him, and as Beglieri played the pass, Dalen had an empty net.

The lead was short-lived, however. The Swiss tied the game at 5:49 of the second on a power play when Leo Braillard walked in off the point and buried a shot. Five minutes later, they regained the lead when Taibel snapped a shot short side to the top corner. 

"Play was up and down, and then I got the puck and saw a little bit of space, and I just ripped it," he noted, with enthusiasm.

Just 97 seconds later, on another power play, Rodwin Dionicio scored a virtually identical goal to Taibel’s—same shot location, same puck location. To put an exclamation mark on the period, Thierry Schild added a fifth goal with a bullet shot that beat a beleaguered Stensrud.

Dionicio added his second early in the third, coming on offf the point and barging his way to the goal before lifting a shot over Stensrud's glove at 5:12.

Switzerland now closes out its round robin against the Czechs tomorrow while Norway will next play 4 January in the relegation game.

"Personally, I think we're good enough to play in the quarter-finals if we play our best, which we haven't done all tournament," Lokkeberg added. "We have to play our A-game next time, and if we do, we're going to stay up. It's as simple as that."