A strong second period display helped Sweden move past Switzerland with a 4-1 victory in Thursday morning's first quarterfinal at the 2025 Women's U18 World Championship.

The 2023 silver medalist improved on last year's loss to Czechia and returns to the final four for the third time in four seasons. Scoring leader Edit Danielsson added a goal and an assist to her tally, moving to 5 (4+1) points for the tournament. Ebba Hesselvall, who scored the overtime winner against Japan on Tuesday, was on target again.

And head coach Andreas Karlsson talked up the performance of his leading scorer. "When you're hot you take chances like she does," he said. "She's relaxed yet focused and besides the goals she works hard all over the rink, creating turnovers and forechecking well."
 
On the game itself, he added: "We scored two power play goals, but we also had chances from different angles than in our previous games. We were compact and got back to the style we played against Finland and the USA."

Switzerland, despite today's defeat, can reflect on an improved group stage performance. Tuesday's victory over Slovakia should be enough to keep the team away from the relegation round. It would be only the second time in 12 top division tournaments that the Swiss avoided a survival showdown at the end of the competition. 

"We did better than last year," said goalie Amaya Iseli. "This team is amazing, we're like a family in the dressing room."

Sweden had the better of a goalless first period. Switzerland’s Iseli was much the busier of the two netminders, making 11 stops in the opening session. Among the more notable incidents, the Thun youngster did well to deal with an awkward, flighted effort from Matilda Osterman before dealing with Evelina Arvidsson’s effort on the rebound with seven minutes played. 

Late in the frame, Danielsson, star of Sweden’s hard-fought win over Japan in the previous game, almost made the breakthrough. She stole the puck from Ilana Leibundgut on the Swedish blue line and sprinted down the ice with the opposition defence in disarray. Once again, Iseli came up with the answers to keep the game tied at the first intermission. 

"We need to learn to have the nerves to win these games," said Swiss head coach Melanie Haefliger. "A 0-0 shift is a good shift for us.

"It wasn't an easy game for us but I'm proud of the team and how they played today. I can't wait to see what the future holds for them."

The start of the second period brought the game’s first power play – and Sweden quickly turned it into the opening goal. Naemi Herzig sat for tripping, and Danielsson pressed home the advantage with a fine wrist shot from the right-hand circle that fizzed through traffic to beat Iseli at last. That was a fourth goal of the tournament for Danielsson, who plays her club hockey for Frolunda and picked up a Swedish U20 women’s championship medal last season.

Although we saw little sign of the Swiss offence up to that point, there was almost an instant response. A stick-snapping shot from Laure Meriguet wobbled its way to the slot, but neither Livia Tschannen nor Sarina Ochsner could make a proper contact and Maja Helge got behind the puck. Helge then faced a more testing effort from Elisa Dalessi, but before the Swiss could build some momentum, Sweden took the game away.

Two goals in three minutes padded the lead to a comfortable 3-0. In the 28th minute, a strong press saw Miranda Lindstrom steal the puck behind the net as the Swiss defence dithered. A quick feed to the slot presented Linn Mattsson with her second goal of the tournament. Then, on another power play, Hesselvall made it 3-0, potting her second in Vantaa with a snipe from Matilda Osterman’s cross-ice feed.

"I don't know what happened in the second period," admitted Iseli. "They scored goals and we didn't. They used their power plays well."

After that, the piping denied Danielsson her second of the night before, late in the middle frame, Switzerland’s Jael Manetsch dinged the cross bar at the other end. 

There was an action-packed start to the third period as the teams traded goals just six seconds apart. Danielsson was the architect of Sweden’s fourth, emerging from behind the net to set up Meja Andersson for a shot that squirmed through Isela’s pads. Moa Johannesson was alert to the opportunity and forced it over the line on 41:52.

But Switzerland responded immediately, helped by an uncharacteristic misjudgement from Helge. She came a long way off her crease but failed to deal with a loose puck. Laelia Huwyler was first to react, gleefully slotting the chance into an open net to get her team on the scoreboard on 41:58.

That denied Helge a deserved shut-out. She remained philosophical: "We played a good game and it's nice to be through to the semis. It took a while for me to face my first shot, but that's just a sign of how well our team was playing."

In the last minute, Switzerland came close to a second when Herzig carved her way through the defence to set up Leibundgut. However, Helge made a strong glove save as it finished 4-1.