VICTORIA, British Columbia (AP) -- Luca Hollenstein made 41 saves and Switzerland stunned Sweden 2-0 on Wednesday to advance to the world junior hockey semifinals.
Yannick Bruschweiler scored in the first period and Luca Wyss connected in the second in the final second of a power play.
''To us, it’s very big,’' Wyss said. ''Everyone around talked that Sweden is going to beat us. We as a team had in our heads we can play against Sweden.’'
Sweden lost after winning all four of its Group B games to run its round-robin winning streak to 48 games.
''It’s hockey,’' Swedish coach Tomas Monten said. ''They played a really good game. We lost our tempo with the puck.’'
Switzerland finished fourth in Group A, beating only overmatched Denmark.
''The confidence is huge,’' Swiss coach Christian Wohlwend said. ''The team belief is huge. We’re just riding on the wave now.’'
In the other quarterfinals Wednesday night, the United States faced the Czech Republic, defending champion Canada played Finland, and Group A winner Russia met Slovakia.
In relegation play in Vancouver, Kazakhstan beat Denmark 4-3 in Game 1 of the best-of-three series.
Oleg Boiko, Yemar Musabayev, Sayan Daniyar and Artur Gatiyatov scored for Kazakhstan, and Demid Yeremeyev made 40 saves. Jonas Rondbjerg, Andreas Grundtvig and Malte Setkov countered for Denmark, its first goals of the tournament after being outscored 26-0 in four round-robin games.
The series loser will drop to Division I. Germany advanced from Division I for 2020.