Danny Nelson scored the winner in the third period and Trey Augustine made 38 saves as the United States beat Canada 4-1 on Tuesday to take Group A at the world junior hockey championship.
Cole Hutson and Cole Eiserman added a goal and an assist each for the Americans. Ryan Leonard scored into the empty net.
Bradly Nadeau replied for the undisciplined tournament hosts, who allowed three goals on seven U.S. power plays. Carter George stopped 24 shots.
Canada, which is looking to build on its record 20 gold medals after a disastrous fifth-place showing at last year’s tournament, finished third in the pool and will face Czechia in Thursday’s quarterfinals. The Americans get Switzerland.
The other matchups will see Group B winners Sweden take on Latvia, and Finland square off with Slovakia.
Canada and the U.S. played in the same building exactly 16 years to the day at the 2009 event when John Tavares scored a memorable hat trick in the hosts’ 7-4 comeback victory on New Year’s Eve. The Canadians would eventually go on to win a fifth straight gold.
The North American neighbours met on New Year’s Eve for the first time since Dec. 31, 2016, when Canada picked up a 3-1 victory in Toronto, but the U.S. got revenge less than a week later with a 5-4 shootout triumph in the title game in Montreal.
Canada opened this year’s under-20 tournament with a 4-0 defeat of Finland before suffering a shocking 3-2 shootout loss to Latvia and registering a nervy 3-0 victory over Germany. The U.S. thumped Germany 10-4, topped Latvia 5-1 and fell 4-3 to Finland in overtime.
The Canadians had a power play to start the third period down 1-0 after Leonard took a roughing call at the end of the second and didn’t have anything going on until Nadeau blasted a one-timer for his first of the tournament off a Brayden Yager feed at 1:58.
Nelson restored the U.S. lead at 4:22 after taking a pass from Huston and firing his third past George.
Canada went back to the man advantage, with 17-year-old Gavin McKenna rattling the iron behind Augustine just as the penalty expired.
The Americans hit the post on another power play with less than 10 minutes to go in regulation when Leonard found iron for a second time in the game.
The U.S. scored its third power-play goal of the night at 13:21 when Eiserman riffled his second to put the game out of reach at 3-1 after a boarding penalty by Canada’s Easton Cowan.
Scores empty net goal
Leonard scored into the empty net with 1:52 left in regulation to spark chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” from their small pockets of fans in the quickly emptying rink.
George, who entered with consecutive shutouts that bookended the Latvia loss, saw his streak end at 133:02 on Tuesday’s first power play to silence the beer-chugging crowd at Canadian Tire Centre.
After hitting the post earlier in the opening period, Hutson took advantage of a failed Canadian clearing attempt on a U.S. power play and snapped home his second goal of the tournament.
The heat was turned up later in the period when Canada’s Luca Pinelli and Zeev Buium of the U.S. went off for roughing and then jawed at each other in the penalty box.
Leonard hit another post for the Americans and Carson Rehkopf fired an effort that Augustine, who entered with an .879 save percentage in two starts, got enough of with his glove at the other end before tempers again boiled over at the buzzer.
Canada had a couple of good looks on its first man advantage and continued to push the pace until penalty trouble led to three straight U.S. power plays.
‘Interesting tournament,’ says Tavares
George made a big stop on Austin Burnevik on the first and then held the fort again on the next two.
Canada had another great chance to even the score, but Augustine fired out his right pad to deny Tanner Molendyk off the rush.
The Maple Leafs centre told reporters in Toronto he’s been keeping an eye on Canada’s world junior efforts.
“It’s been an interesting tournament,” Tavares said Monday. “Credit to them and the way they played (against Germany) and stuck with it.
“A lot of noise with how the game finished up against Latvia.”
