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Snuggerud shines as USA hammers Switzerland at World Juniors
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Jimmy Snuggerud had a first-period hat-trick and five other American players had multi-point games as Team USA crushed Switzerland 11-3 in their World Junior Championship matchup Thursday.
Snuggerud scored all three of his goals in a nine minute stretch to give the Americans a commanding 5-1 lead through the opening 20 minutes. They kept coming in the second by scoring four more and pushing the lead to 9-1 before taking their foot off the gas slightly in the third.
The 19-year-old St. Louis Blues prospect also scored in Team USA's 4-1 tournament-opening win over Norway on Boxing Day, giving him four goals through two games at the 2024 World Juniors. In 18 games this season with the University of Minnesota, Snuggerud has 11 goals and five assists for 16 points in 18 games.
Gavin Brindley, a second-round pick by the Columbus Blue Jackets earlier this summer, also had two goals and three points in Thursday's win. Gabe Perreault, Quinn Finley, Eric Pohlkamp, Will Smith and Isaac Howard had the other goals for the U.S. while Frank Nazar had four assists.
Gregory Weber, Gael Christie and Thierry Schild accounted for Switzerland's goals.
Jacob Fowler got the start in net for the U.S., stopping 21 of 24 shots. Trey Augustine started the first for the U.S. and figures to be back between the pipes against Czechia on Friday.
Switzerland goalie Lorin Gruter was pulled in the first period after Snuggerud's third goal, with Ewan Huet -- the son of former NHLer Cristobal Huet -- taking over in net.
Thursday’s win pulled the Americans into a tie with Slovakia for first place in group B with six points. USA will next take on Czechia (1-0-0-1) on Friday before wrapping up group play against Slovakia on New Year’s Eve.
Switzerland falls to 0-0-0-2 after a 3-0 loss to Slovakia on Wednesday. They sit in a tie for last in the group with Norway.
Watch every World Junior Championship game all tournament long LIVE on TSN, TSN.ca and the TSN App.
Canada plays Sweden on Friday
Canada gets their toughest test of the World Junior Championship so far as they take on Sweden Friday afternoon.
Watch the matchup LIVE at 1:30pm ET/10:30am PT on TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, TSN.ca and the TSN App.
Canada opened the tournament on Boxing Day with a 5-2 victory over Finland followed by a 10-0 drubbing of Latvia on Wednesday.
They currently sit atop Group A with six points at 2-0-0-0.