BRATISLAVA, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Switzerland remain undefeated at the Ice Hockey World Championship after routing Austria 4-0 on Tuesday night and now lead Group B ahead of Russia with better overall score.
Austria stay among the bottom three teams of Group B without any points gained at the tournament in Slovakia. The Austrians failed to capitalize on a four-minute powerplay in the first period and the punishment was dealt by Switzerland's Kevin Fiala who opened the scoring with a quick one-timer shortly before the first buzzer.
Both teams battled for almost the rest of the game but it was the Swiss who came out on top. Roman Josi's hard shot stretched the lead to two with seven minutes to go and broke the Austrian's resistance. Philipp Kurashev and Sven Andrighetto sealed the 4-0 win late in the third.
After the victory, last year's silver medalists will face off against Norway on Wednesday and the still-pointless Austria will have to deal with two-time defending champions Sweden on Thursday.
