WINTERTHUR – Bursting up ice to the roars of the crowd, Switzerland took it to Kazakhstan from the opening faceoff and won a crucial Preliminary Round game, 6-1. Darcia Leimgruber led the way with two goals while Sandra Thalmann, Julia Marty, Sara Benz, and Christine Meier also counted goals. The win puts the Swiss in the quarter-finals against a Group A opponent to be determined tomorrow, the winner of the Slovakia-Russia game. With the loss, Kazakhstan is forced to play in the Relegation Round against the loser of that Slovakia-Russia contest. The win is arguably the most important in the nation’s women’s hockey history insofar as it sets up an excellent chance for the Swiss to play for a medal next Monday. "Making it to the quarter-finals is huge for us," captain Kathrin Lehmann acknowledged. "We now have a chance to break into the top four. It was big to win again today because it underlined the victory against Finland. That was not a fluke. We are a very good team." Right from the get-go the Swiss were the superior and more aggressive team, launching a rubber assault on Kazakh goalie Anna Kossenko with relentless purpose. They were rewarded with two quick goals early. First, Thalmann’s point shot squeezed through the goalie’s pads, and less than two minutes later Marty buried a shot from the side of the net. After Thalmann scored, Lehmann went to referee Melanie Bordeleau and asked for the puck as a memento. "It's a tradition on our team that when a player scores her first World Championship goal, she gets the puck," the captain revealed. The Swiss opened a 3-0 lead near the end of the period when Darcia Leimgruber deftly deflected a point shot from Lara Stalder, putting the Swiss in control as they headed to the dressing room. The Swiss made it 4-0 towards the end of the second period on a crazy play. A delayed penalty at centre ice saw them carry the puck in over the line, and after two good shots, Leimgruber scooped the loose puck into the empty net with Kossenko down and out. Kazakhstan got one goal back on a power play early in the third when Natalya Yakovchuk drilled a low shot to the far side of Schelling from the top of the left faceoff circle at 2:02. It was their first goal in 112:18 of play, going back to the third period of their first game against Finland. The Swiss responded soon after, though, as Sara Benz raced down the ice while being pursued by two defenders and made a nice deke to beat Kossenko with a backhand to make it 5-1 and pretty much seal the victory. Meier closed the scoring with a late goal on a nice slapshot. "We knew they would defend with five players around their own net," Lehmann said, "and we knew we had to play with a lot of patience. We knew we just had to keep shooting. I think we did that quite well." ANDREW PODNIEKS