Howard the Star in American Win Over Canada
In what may find yourself being a battle for a medal afterward within the match, the United States stomped throughout Canada in a 8-3 win on Saturday.
The Americans have been carried by a powerful efficiency by ahead Isaac Howard, who scored a 4 targets to snag the victory. His first two targets opened the sport in a dominant interval for the Americans, beginning at 4:20 and once more at 18:52 after Canada’s goaltender Reid Dyck made a few large stops.
Matthew Wood and Matthew Ward then scored simply over a minute aside for Canada, with Ward capitalizing on a penalty shot, to provide Canada some life after 25:55 of play, but it surely was downhill from there. Logan Cooley scored at 29:21 and Cruz Lucius added one lower than a minute later to make it 4-2, a deficit Canada could not overcome.
Connor Bedard scored a highlight-reel wrister with little or no room to get a shot off at 31:43, however Ryan Chesley answered again three minutes later for the 5-3 objective. Howard accomplished his hat-trick at 38:37 to make it 6-3 and put the sport away. Canada could not do something to chop into USA’s benefit, as an alternative permitting Cole Spicer to attain on a breakaway and Howard a fourth objective to make it 8-3.
Latvia Stuns Sweden to Open Tournament
After dropping all 4 video games final yr, Latvia has began the U-18 World Championship off robust with a 3-2 victory over Sweden.
This is the primary win for Latvia over Sweden at this match, getting revenge from a 7-0 loss a yr in the past. Latvia did take Sweden to further time in 2016, the one time they managed a degree in opposition to Sweden beforehand.
Special groups have been the story on this one. Rainers Darzins scored the lone objective of the primary at 9:47 with Filip Bystedt off for roughing earlier than Noah Ostlund scored six minutes into the second, additionally on the person benefit, to tie issues up. But a minute after that objective, Erasts Nazarenko scored to provide Latvia the lead again, sparking a hearth that by no means left the Latvian bench.
Of course, Sweden wasn’t keen to again down. Bystedt, considered one of Sweden’s prime offensive threats, scored at 13:55 on the power-play with a superbly positioned shot. Sweden tried to capitalize on that, however a power-play objective by Eriks Mateiko proved to be the dagger as Latvia held on for the 3-2 win.
Finns Start Strong Against Switzerland
It took simply 16 seconds for the Finns to capitalize first. Jere Lassila opened it up with a fast shot that Loris Uberti could not cease. The lead lasted till Switzerland’s first energy play of the sport when Gregory Weber created his personal scoring alternative by blowing by a pair of Finns earlier than shoveling the disk previous Niklas Kokko with 4 minutes left within the first.
The second interval is the place issues fell aside for the Swiss. Joakim Kemell and Jani Nyman scored a power-play objective every at 3:52 and 6:13, respectively, to take any late-period momentum away from Switzerland. Lenni Hameenaho made it 4-1 at 30:58 to place the sport far out of attain, successfully nullifying Thierry Schild’s late-period objective that made it 4-2. A pair of late empty-netters from Topi Ronni and Tuomas Uronen ended the sport in Finland’s favor, a contest that was dominated by power-play alternatives.
Czechia Stops Germany
With a full crowd on house ice, Germany kicked issues off in a giant manner seven minutes in. Roman Kechter’s shot from the faceoff circle to the left of the German internet someway beat Jan Spunar by the wickets for the 1-1 objective.
Czechia tried to pressure their manner again into the sport, and finally did with 35 seconds left within the first. Simon Slavicek scored on the breakaway to capitalize on a stable interval for the Czech ahead.
The groups swapped targets once more within the second, however the Czechs in the end gained the sport by the center stanza. Luca Hauf regained Germany’s lead at 24:44 after holding on to the puck lengthy sufficient to beat two Czech defenders earlier than getting in entrance of the Czech crease and firing a shot from in shut.
Jiri Kulich, a projected first-round decide in 2022, scored on the ability play at 11:01 to make it 2-2, just for Adam Bares, one other prime Czech prospect, to do the identical 36 minutes in. Kulich’s objective with 30 seconds left within the center stanza in the end proved to be all it took to win as Spunar performed an ideal sport the remainder of the best way for a Czech win.