HERISAU, Switzerland – Switzerland enjoyed its third straight four-goal win. The Swiss now await the final clash against also-undefeated Belarus on Saturday.

Thursday's lone game began with a novelty: Host team Switzerland trailed for the first time during the event when Slovene Anze Florjancic scored at 1:51.

But the surprise didn't have a long-lasting effect. Manuel Zigerli equalized a few seconds after a power play ended at 9:25 and 30 seconds before the first intermission, Pascal Berger put the Swiss ahead.

Berger enjoyed much freedom in the middle period, when the Slovenes let him have all the time in the world to score under the crossbar with a perfect shot past Slovenian goalkeeper Matija Pintaric. This 3-1 goal came at 34:11.

Although the Slovenes played a defensive game, Jaka Ankerst brought some scoring to the contest when he scored Slovenia’s 3-2 goal at 36:08.

The Slovenian ambitions to produce an upset were broken just 38 seconds into the third period when Yannick Blaser’s distance shot hit the back of the net.

Slovenia had a big scoring chance and an opportunity to climb back into the game but Blaz Gregorc hit the crossbar, while Alain Berger scored the 5-2 goal on the ensuing counter attack. Gregory Sciaroni made it a four-goal lead at 47:52.

"It was lot of hard work for us tonight but we knew that we will create lots of chances when we keep up the speed," said Switzerland head coach Jakob Kölliker. "But sometimes we lack in discipline and take bad penalties.  There, we must improve when we play Belarus.”

MARTIN MERK