World Junior Hockey Championship 2017 Results: Wednesday Group Scores, Reaction

The 2017 World Junior Hockey Championship entered in to its third day on Wednesday, with two games on the docket north of the border. 

Fans in attendance were treated to plenty of scoring Tuesday. The Czech Republic and Switzerland combined for seven goals, while Russia dropped nine goals on Latvia. Host Canada also pitched a 5-0 shutout of Slovakia.

Slovakia had an opportunity against the United States on Wednesday to rebound from that defeat. The Swiss, meanwhile, looked to continue their momentum against Sweden.

Below is an overview of Wednesday's scores and the group standings, followed by a brief recap of the action.

Wednesday Scores

Group	Matchup	Result
A	Switzerland vs. Sweden	SUI 2-4 SWE
B	Slovakia vs. United States	SVK 2-5 US

Group Standings

Rank	Group A	Games Played	W-OTW-OTL-L	Goals For	Goals Against	Points
Rank	Group B	Games Played	W-OTW-OTL-L	Goals For	Goals Against	Points
1	Sweden	2	2-0-0-0	10	3	6
2	Czech Republic	2	1-0-1-0	5	5	4
3	Denmark	2	1-0-0-1	4	8	3
4	Switzerland	2	0-1-0-1	6	7	2
5	Finland	2	0-0-0-2	3	5	0
1	United States	2	2-0-0-0	11	3	6
2	Canada	2	2-0-0-0	10	3	6
3	Russia	2	1-0-0-1	12	6	3
4	Slovakia	2	0-0-0-2	2	10	0
5	Latvia	2	0-0-0-2	2	15	0

Wednesday Recap

The Swedes overpowered Switzerland en route to a 4-2 victory. Sweden outshot the Swiss 46-15, matching Switzerland's entire output through the first period.

Switzerland put up a good fight through the first two periods, though, proving an efficient attack can be just as good as one that peppers the opposing goaltender with a high volume of shots.

Joel Eriksson Ek opening the scoring with a goal 4:13 into the game, but Jonas Siegenthaler answered back less than a minute later to tie the game at 1-1. TSN shared a replay of Siegenthaler's power-play goal:

After Lias Andersson provided Sweden with a goal and a 2-1 lead to end the first period, Calvin Thurkauf scored Switzerland's second power-play goal to at the 26:17 mark of the second period to level the score heading into the final frame.

The Hockey Writers' Mark Scheig thought Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen struck gold by grabbing Thurkauf in the seventh round of the 2016 entry draft:

Sweden had to wait for the decisive goal. With 5:08 left in the game, Eriksson Ek delivered the decisive blow. TSN provided a second look at the tally:

Lucas Carlsson added an insurance goal with 2:49 remaining to put the game out of reach for Sweden.

Thurkauf was disappointed Switzerland came away with nothing from the defeat but admired the team's overall performance.

"For sure we're proud that we played a pretty good game," he said, per Lucas Aykroyd of the World Junior's official website. "But in the end, we lost a very important game that we should have won, or at least gotten one or two points out of it."

A second-period offensive outburst propelled the United States to a 5-2 win over Slovakia to close out Wednesday's play.

The U.S. never trailed in the game, scoring twice in the first period through Tanner Laczynski and Colin White. Martin Fehervary provided a sliver of hope to Slovakia with a goal at the 18:08 mark of the opening frame.

Tage Thompson wasted little time padding the Americans' lead, though, scoring a little over two minutes into the second period. He earned style points for his finish, courtesy of NHL Network:

Charlie McAvoy and Troy Terry scored as well to put the United States up 5-1 with an entire period to play.

Michal Roman's goal with 37 seconds in the game was too little too late for Slovakia to mount a comeback. The Slovakians can take solace in the fact they put up a better fight Wednesday than they did in their defeat to Canada, when they finished with six shots to Canada's 44.

With the United States' win, Group B is shaping up to be pretty interesting. The U.S. and Canada are tied with six points, and the United States gets the slight edge right now by virtue of goals scored.

Matched up with Russia on Wednesday, the Americans' hold on first place may not last long.