Ivan Telegin, who boasts an explosive stride, scored twice and almost scored a third. He was a rocket all night long, even with his limited ice time.

Alexander Ovechkin, playing his first game, drew an assist and had exactly 19:00 of ice time spread over 24 shifts.

"It was a tough game," number 8 said. "For a long time we couldn't get a goal even though we had lots of chances. But, thank God, we won."

The win gives Russia 12 points, good enough for second place in Group A behind the Czechs (14). The loss leaves the Swiss in fourth place with seven points, hanging onto the final playoff position.

"They capitalized on their chances and we didn’t create too many of our own," lamented Swiss captain Andres Ambuhl. "We knew we had to play smart defensively and put them under pressure. It worked, but only for a little while."

The entertaining first period produced but one goal, but there was exciting end-to-end action and several chances at both ends of the ice. Russia got the early lead on a controversial play.

Ivan Telegin took a torpedo pass up the middle and raced down the ice between two Swiss defenders. His shot was stopped by Berra, and Telegin fell into the goalie as he swiped the loose puck into the net. The referees determined this motion had been carried out before the contact.

The Swiss had some good chances of their own, particularly later in the period on a couple of power plays, but Bobrovski was sharp in the blue ice for the home side.

The Swiss were the better team in the second but again came up short by virtue of taking the only three penalties of the period and stifling their momentum. The only goal came on a beautiful play by Yevgeni Kuznetsov, another late arrival with Ovechkin.

First, he beat defenceman Christian Marti by going from backhand to forehand while cutting in on goal. Then, after his initial shot was stopped by Berra, he batted the loose puck out of the air and into the top of the goal. Video review confirmed the high-speed play.

"There was nothing special about my goal," he said. "The puck just popped up in the air, and I got my stick on it. I didn't understand why the ref didn't give the goal right away."

The Swiss started the third by taking three quickpenalties, giving the hosts two 5-on-3 chances. Although the defence was sensational, Telegin got his second of the night soon after when he knocked in Roman Lyubimov's unsuccessful wraparound at 8:50.

Sergei Shirkov got the fourth goal at 15:20, knocking in a loose puck from the side of the goal. 

Simon Moser broke Bobrovski's shutout with 1:16 to go, banging home a rebound from in front, and Sergei Mozyakin closed out the scoring with a hard shot off a Pavel Datsyuk pass with 17.8 seconds remaining.