VICTORIA — Maxime Comtois had two goals and two assists as Canada outplayed Switzerland but struggled to pull out a 5-3 victory on Wednesday in a pre-tournament tune-up game ahead of the world junior championship.
Cody Glass, Owen Tippet and Jack Studnicka also scored for Canada, who open the tournament Dec. 26 in Vancouver against Denmark.
Forwards Valentin Nussbaumer, Philipp Kurashev and defence Tobias Geisser replied for Switzerland.
Canada peppered Swiss netminder Luca Jan Hollenstein with 41 shots, while Canadian goalie Michael DiPietro faced 17 shots.
The Swiss capitalized on their few scoring chances while Hollenstein was forced to make numerous saves from point blank range.
Canada spent much of the first and second periods in the Swiss zone with a sustained forecheck and extended periods of puck control, while the only goal in the third was an empty netter by Comtois, who is the only returning player from last year’s gold-medal winning team.
The Canadian Press