Thanks to a Sweden win over rival Finland, the Swiss national junior team will compete in the playoffs against Russia on Wednesday. (Photo: Jordon Cooper/flickr)

1. Remember when I said the Swiss weren’t playing until Wednesday? Yeah, I lied. Read the schedule wrong. My bad.

2. The Swiss have to be thanking Sweden right now for taking care of business against Finland today.

Switzerland squeaked into the playoff round of the World Juniors after losing in overtime to the Czech Republic, 4-3. San Jose Sharks prospect Tomas Hertl scored the game-winner for the Czechs, finally finishing off a pesky Swiss squad that had battled back from a 3-1 deficit on power-play goals by Christoph Bertschy and Dario Simion.

Christian Marti was the first goal scorer for the Swiss. Matej Beran, Michal Svihalek and Tomas Hyka were the Czech scorers in regulation. In goal, Patrik Bartosak made 26 saves, while Melvin Nyffeler stopped 27 shots.

The Swiss played today without forward Lukas Sieber, who had been suspended following Sunday’s game against Finland for a head shot on Finnish defenseman (and Islanders prospect) Ville Pokka. Pokka returned to play, but the IIHF ruled that the hit was dangerous and handed down the suspension.

Thankfully for the red and white, Sweden was able to do what they couldn’t yesterday, beating the Finns handily by a score of 7-4. With the loss, Finland heads to the relegation round, while Switzerland remains alive for the playoffs. They will face off against powerhouse Russia on Wednesday.

Bonus: The IIHF did a nice little piece on Swiss forward Lino Martschini, who is one of the smallest players at this year’s tournament. He is currently undrafted, but played for a while in the OHL, posting good numbers before heading back to Switzerland to play for EV Zug of the NLA.