Prince George Cougar centre Riley Heidt and Team Canada have advanced to the medal round at the IIHF U-18 world hockey championship.
Heidt’s cross-ice pass on a power play set up Vancouver native Macklin Celebrini for the first his two goals to open the scoring late in the late in the first period. Canada went on to score five more in the second period in a 7-3 win over host Switzerland in a quarterfinal playoff Thursday in Basel.
Celebrini, who plays in the USHL for the Chicago Steel, also assisted on two goals for a four-point game as the Canadians qualified for a semifinal playoff Saturday (10 a.m. PT) against undefeated Sweden.
Carson Bjornson made 28 saves as his team outshot Switzerland 33-31.
Andrew Cristall of the Kelowna Rockets scored his first two goals of the tournament. Callum Ritchie, Matthew Wood and Berkly Catton also scored for Canada.
The Swedes, who defeated Latvia 6-1 Thursday, whipped Canada 8-0 a week ago to open the tournament. In three of their four games since then, the Canadians have scored at least seven goals.
In other quarterfinal results, the United States improved to 5-0 after a 4-1 win over Czechia.
Team USA will meet Slovakia in the other semifinal Saturday (6 a.m.). The Slovaks eliminated Finland with a 3-2 quarterfinal triumph.
