Ryan Leonard (Boston College) and James Hagens (Boston College) each scored twice as the U.S. National Junior Team defeated Switzerland 7-2 in the quarterfinal round of the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship Thursday afternoon at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, Ont.
Team USA advances to the semifinals on Saturday and will face Czechia at 7:30 p.m. ET live on NHL Network.
“Overall, I thought we were ready to play and did what we needed to do against a good opponent in Switzerland,” said Team USA coach David Carle (Denver) in a statement. “We’ll get ready now for the semifinals and look forward to the challenge in front of us.”
Brandon Svoboda (Boston University) staked the U.S. to a lead it would never relinquish with his goal at 6:39 of the opening period on a sharp-angle shot that beat Swiss netminder Christian Kirsch five hole.
Hagens added to the lead 1:44 later as he buried a net-front opportunity generated by a pass from Oliver Moore (Minnesota).
Moments after a successful U.S. penalty kill, Leonard, the U.S. captain, forced a turnover in the neutral zone, powered his way toward the net, and lifted a shot past Kirsch that proved to be the game winner at 11:35.
Nils Rhyn scored short-handed at 15:04 to cut the Team USA advantage to two.
Danny Nelson (Notre Dame) redirected a pass from Moore into the back of the net to regain the three-goal lead for the U.S. at the 16:44 mark.
Zeev Buium (Denver) fired home a one-timer at 7:45 of the middle stanza following a cross-crease pass from Gabe Perreault (Boston College) on the power play to extend the U.S. advantage to 5-1.
Hagens added his second goal of the contest at 15:03 following back-to-back passes between him and Perreault to extend Team USA’s lead to five. Leonard, named the U.S. Player of the Game, followed up 1:20 later with a power-play goal to give the U.S. a 7-1 advantage after two periods.
Switzerland’s Andro Kaderli scored on the power play at 6:53 of the third to account for the 7-2 final score.
U.S. netminder Hampton Slukynsky (Western Michigan) made 17 saves in the victory.
