Damien Riat and Nino Niederreiter scored and Leonardo Genoni made 28 saves for fifth-seeded Switzerland, which defeated Italy 3-0 in the qualifying playoff round Tuesday.
Switzerland took a 1-0 lead at 14:14 of the first, capitalizing on a mistake by Saros. The Finnish goalie went behind the net to collect the puck but his pass to defenseman Niko Mikkola was intercepted by Switzerland’s Ken Jager, who fed it to Riat on the side of the net and he buried into the open goal while Saros scrambled to get back.
The Swiss made it 2-0 at 15:26 when Niederreiter, who had just jumped off the bench, took a pass from Pius Suter at the top of the left face-off circle and blasted a one-timer over the glove of Saros, who appeared to be screened by Mikkola.
