World Juniors 2016: Big wins for Finland, USA, Czech Republic highlight Day Five

The start of the day looked like it would be a great day for underdogs at the 2016 World Junior Hockey Championships in Helsinki, Finland.

In the day's first game, Belarus had a 3-2 lead over the Czech Republic in the third period. But the Czechs got two goals from Jiri Smejkal and Radek Vesely in just over two minutes to turn things around and take a 4-3 lead. They would add an empty netter to take a 5-3 victory.

After that, it was Slovakia's turn. They took a quick 2-0 lead over hosts Finland with goals from Matus Sukel and Radovan Bondra 2:05 apart midway through the frame and it looked like Finland would be battling to avoid the fourth spot in the group. However, the hosts fought back. Sebastian Aho scored to make it 2-1 before the end of the first and Finland struck for two goals in the second for a 3-2 lead.

In the third, the floodgates opened as Finland scored five goals in the third for what ended up as an 8-3 victory. The win sets up a showdown for second spot with the Czechs. If Russia doesn't get full points from their game tomorrow against Slovakia, the Czechs can finish first with a regulation win against Finland. Finland, with a win in regulation, would finish second in Group B.

Jesse Puljujärvi was great for the Finns with a goal and three assists. He now has the tournament lead in points with 10 points (three goals, seven assists).

The final game of the day is where Canada needed a favour from the team they need a shootout to beat yesterday, and Switzerland did not put up the same type of fight against the United States, perhaps done after their close encounter yesterday.

Christian Dvorak, Auston Matthews and Brandon Carlo scored within three minutes of each other to take a 3-0 American lead and it was just downhill from there. The US made it 6-0 by the end of the first period.

Joren van Pottelberghe, after a great game yesterday, was be pulled after the fifth goal by Matthew Tkachuk.

The US continued to score after Timo Meier made it 6-1, and opened the lead up to 10-1 after two periods. No further scoring occurred in a final 20-minute period essentially played at straight time, as both teams looked ahead to their next match of the tournament. Unfortunately, after claiming only one point through the group stage, that next game for the Swiss will come in the best-of-three relegation round that determines if they will return to the IIHF's Top Division next year.