Americans blank Swiss in world junior hockey

Jack Campbell

made 22 saves and the United States remained unbeaten at the world junior hockey championship with a 3-0 victory over Switzerland yesterday in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Chris Kreider, Matt Donovan and A.J. Jenks scored for the Americans (2-0), who opened the tournament with an equally impressive, 7-3 win over Slovakia on Saturday.

Benjamin Conz made 46 saves for Switzerland (0-1).

With a partisan crowd behind them, the Swiss were the stronger team in the opening period, generating more scoring chances than the Americans. Sven Ryser had a chance to put Switzerland ahead, but was denied by Campbell on a partial breakaway with 6 minutes remaining.

Kreider, a Boston College product and New York Rangers draft pick, was the only player to beat Conz in the first 40 minutes. He deflected in Cam Fowler's point shot on a power play at 5:51 of the second period. Conz appeared to be screened on the shot.

Conz was sensational from that point on - the Americans fired 38 shots on goal over the final two periods. But the Swiss couldn't convert their chances, and Donovan gave the U.S. team a 2-0 lead with 7 minutes left. Jenks put the game out of reach 4 minutes later.

The next game for the United States is tomorrow against Latvia.

Switzerland faces five-time defending champion Canada today. Canada was a 16-0 winner over Latvia on Saturday.

In Group B in Regina, Oliver Ekman Larsson and Anton Rodin each had two goals and an assist to help Sweden beat Austria, 7-3.

Jacob Josefson, Mattias Ekholm and Andre Petersson also scored for Sweden (2-0-0), which got 24 saves from Anders Nilsson, a New York Islanders draft pick.

Austria (0-2-0) got goals from Alexander Pallestrang, Dominique Heinrich and Konstantin Komarek, and Marco Wieser made 47 stops.

* Olympic women's 3,000-meter speedskating champion Ireen Wust qualified to race the 1,500 at the Vancouver Games and the men's 10,000 champion in Turin, Bob de Jong, qualified for the 5,000 in the Dutch Olympic trials in Heerenveen, Netherlands. Sven Kramer, the favorite to take gold in both the 5,000 and 10,000 in Vancouver, already has qualified.

* Mao Asada won the Japan women's national figure skating championships in Osaka to secure a place on the Vancouver Olympic team. Akiko Suzuki also booked a trip to Vancouver after finishing second, ahead of Yukari Nakano. Miki Ando, who already had secured a place in the Olympics, was fourth with 185.44 points. Daisuke Takahashi wrapped up a place in the Olympics on Saturday by winning the men's event and will join Nobunari Oda and Takahiko Kozuka in Vancouver.