OTTAWA, Ontario — Notre Dame forward Danny Nelson scored twice, Western Michigan’s Hampton Slukynsky made 25 saves and the defending champion United States defeated Latvia 5-1 on Saturday in the world junior hockey championship.
The U.S. improved to 2-0 in Group A play, while Latvia dropped to 1-1 a day after stunning Canada with a 3-2 victory in a shootout.
Boston College’s Ryan Leonard, Denver’s Zeev Buium and Minnesota Duluth’s Max Plante also scored for the Americans. They will be back in action Sunday at Canadian Tire Centre against Finland, then close group play Tuesday night against Canada.
“You’ve got to take it one game at a time, just like we did last year,” Leonard told iihf.com this week, assessing his team’s chances at a repeat. “So, hopefully we’ll get the same result. But you can’t really look too far ahead.”
Davids Livsics scored for Latvia. Linards Feldbergs stopped 36 shots after making 55 saves against Canada and stopping all eight attempts in the shootout.
In the only other game of the day, Czechia beat Kazakhstan 14-2 at TD Place. Czechia and Sweden are both 2-0 in Group B. Matej Mastalirsky, Vojtech Hradec and Jakub Stancl had hat tricks, with Hradec and Stancl also each assisting on two goals.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.