The 2019 IIHF World Junior Championships ended in heartbreak for Team Canada after an 2-1 overtime loss to Finland in the quarterfinals.
READ MORE: Heartbreak at home: Canada ousted after 2-1 OT loss to Finland
But while that game was taking place over at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, fans in Greater Victoria were sitting on the edge of their seats for two quarterfinal games at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
READ MORE: World Junior Championship bringing people together in Victoria
First to hit the ice on Wednesday was Sweden facing off against Switzerland. Undefeated in preliminary play, Sweden was favoured to win over Switzerland, who had one win, two losses, and an overtime loss.
Both Yannick Bruschweiler and Luca Wyss scored to help the Swiss pull off the 2-0 upset and advance to the semifinals for the first time since 2010.
Between the pipes, Luca Hollenstein posted a 41-save shutout for Switzerland.
#Switzerland takes it 2-0 over #Sweden at the final buzzer in the #quarterfinals of the #2019worldjuniors in #yyj pic.twitter.com/XRaNiZgW8z
— Victoria News (@VictoriaNews) January 2, 2019
Heavy cheers for Switzerland #WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/LqNRE13mFB
— Victoria News (@VictoriaNews) January 2, 2019
Later in the afternoon, the United States faced off against the Czech Republic during the final game to be played in Victoria during the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championships.
After preliminary play, the US had three wins and one overtime loss while the Czech Republic had two wins and two losses.
Team USA logged a goal in each period with Noah Cates, Josh Norris and Sasha Chmelevski each scoring to send the Americans to the semifinals with a 3-1 win. Martin Kaut had the lone marker for the Czechs in the third.
Heavy pressure by the USA 🇺🇸 in their quarterfinal matchup with the Czech Republic 🇨🇿 in #yyj. This is the final @iihf_wjc game to be played in Victoria! pic.twitter.com/QjdFTM15eY
— Victoria News (@VictoriaNews) January 3, 2019
Over in Vancouver, Russia faced off against Slovakia in quarterfinal action. Russia went undefeated in preliminary play with four wins while Slovakia posted one win and three losses.
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For Russia, Klim Kostin scored twice and Grigori Denisenko added a goal and two assists. The Russians scored four goals in the opening 11 minutes of play and posted a final score of 8-3.
Martin Fehervary, Milos Roman and Michal Ivan all netted goals for Slovakia in the third.
READ MORE: Canada edges Switzerland in pre-tournament world hockey fanfare
In semifinal action, Russia faces off against the United States at 1 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 4 while Finland and Switzerland go head-to-head at 5 p.m.
The bronze medal game takes place Saturday, Jan. 5 at 1 p.m., followed by the gold medal game at 5 p.m. at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
Canada’s quarterfinal loss ends their bid for back-to-back gold medals for the first time since winning five straight from 2005 to 2009.
