Swiss forward Marco Miranda scored the only goal in the shoot-out following a 4-4 draw in regulation time at the Centre Bell sports complex in Montreal.

Goals from Alexander True, Joachim Blichfeld and Niklas Andersen had put Denmark into a 3-0 lead before Nico Hischier pulled one back late in the first period of the Group A clash.

Mathias From restored the Danes’ three-goal advantage within 30 seconds of the restart, but Switzerland refused to lie down and hit back through Yannick Zehnder and Nando Eggenberger to make it 4-3 going into the third period.

A second goal for Zehnder less than four minutes after the break levelled the match before a video review of whether team-mate Damien Riat’s effort had crossed the line during a goalmouth scrum went against Switzerland.

With the teams locked at 4-4, Miranda held his nerve to score what proved to be the decisive penalty.

"The first period was garbage," said Switzerland’s Jonas Siegenthaler.

"The second period, we started good and scored some goals and came back into the game.

"We just needed to shoot the puck and go for rebounds.

"At the end it was 4-4, and we had some good chances in the overtime.

"Their goalie was good and they played good defence and everything.

"At the end we won in the shoot-out."

Switzerland has one more round-robin game against Finland tomorrow and will aim to edge out Denmark for second place in Group A.

Prior to that, Sweden go up against the Czech Republic.

Today’s Group B match at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto saw Slovakia claim a 4-2 win over Latvia.

The Latvians took the lead through Karlis Cukste in the first period, but their joy was short-lived as Filip Lestan quickly equalised.

Milos Roman made it 2-1 to Slovakia in the second period before Andrej Hatala and Marek Sloboda extended the advantage further in the third.

Filips Buncis snatched a late consolation for Latvia, who have finished the group stage with zero points and will therefore face Finland in a best-of-three relegation-round series starting on Monday (January 2). 

The final two games in Group B are scheduled for tomorrow with the United States and Canada meeting each other in a battle for top spot and Russia going up against Slovakia.