Thomas Harley and Sidney Crosby also scored, and Logan Thompson made 24 saves for Canada (2-0-0-0), which will play Team France in the preliminary round finale for both teams Sunday (10:40 a.m.; Peacock, USA, ICI Télé, CBC Gem, RDS2, CBC).
Pius Suter scored, and Akira Schmid made 34 saves for Switzerland (1-0-1-0).
“I think for a lot of parts of the game we were right there,” Switzerland forward Timo Meier said. “They capitalized on their chances. They get a quick goal on the power play that obviously fueled their top guys and got them into the game, and that’s tough.”
The Swiss will complete the preliminary round against Team Czechia on Sunday (6:10 a.m. ET; Peacock, CNBC, ICI TOU.TV, CBC Gem, SN, RDS), with the winner of that game possibly getting a bye as well.
The three group winners and the next-best team record-wise will move to the quarterfinals, with the other eight teams starting the single-elimination qualifying playoff Tuesday.
Switzerland may have to play that game and perhaps the rest of the Olympics without forward Kevin Fiala, who was taken from the ice on a stretcher with 2:50 left in the third period after he got tangled up along the boards with Canada forward Tom Wilson.
“Stuff like that is hard to watch,” Switzerland forward Nico Hischier said. “Obviously Kevin is a big part of our group. I hope it’s better than it looked, but we obviously wish Kevin the best.”
Switzerland coach Patrick Fischer said Fiala went to the hospital and that the injury “didn’t look good.”
The crowd was largely made of Switzerland fans, with the border about an hour from Milan. Perhaps feeling a bit confident after forward Nino Niederreiter said this week that he and his teammates were there to “poke the bear” when they played Canada, they were loud and boisterous and seemed to give the Swiss players a jump.
“They have a good team,” MacKinnon said, “So it’s not an easy game. They’re ready to go. This is almost a home country for them. It was a competitive first period.”
