Northeastern’s Tyler Madden scored twice and Jason Robertson had a goal and an assist as the United States closed out the preliminary round of the world junior hockey championship Monday night with a 4-1 win over Finland.
The Americans finished second in Group B behind unbeaten Sweden.
The U.S. will face the Czech Republic in the quarterfinal round. Russia plays Slovakia, Canada takes on Finland, and Sweden opposes Switzerland. Games resume Wednesday.
St. Cloud State’s Ryan Poehling also scored and Michigan’s Josh Norris had two assists as the Americans outshot Finland 39-28.
”I think as a team, collectively, we played great,” Poehling said. ”We for sure played a full 60, which was nice to see. It’s going to be good for us heading into the medal round with that kind of confidence.”
Northeastern’s Cayden Primeau earned his second win in net and has a 1.50 goals-against average in the tournament.
”It really helps that the guys stepped up and were blocking shots and keeping them to the outside,” Primeau said.
Jack Hughes, expected to be the first pick in the upcoming NHL draft, missed his third straight game with an undisclosed injury. He has not played since getting an assist in the opening 2-1 win over Slovakia.
Poehling thinks the American squad matches up well against the Czech Republic.
”We’ve got a lot of deep lines and they’re kind of front-heavy,” he said. ”So for us to just tighten up against those top guys and play four lines, it’s going to help us a lot.”
In another Group B game, Rasmus Sandin had two goals and an assist and Emil Bemstrom and Nils Lundkvist also scored as Sweden defeated Kazakhstan 4-1 and secured the top spot in the group.
In Vancouver, Pavel Shen scored the go-ahead goal in the third period and Russia defeated Canada 2-1 in a Group A game.
With the win, Russia claimed the top spot in the group. Canada finished second.
Shen, a Boston Bruins prospect, scored 11 minutes into the third period, skating around Canada’s Markus Phillips and tucking the puck behind goalie Michael DiPietro.
Florida Panthers prospect Grigori Denisenko scored Russia’s first goal.
Canada’s Cody Glass scored off an assist from Owen Tippett. DiPietro, a Vancouver Canucks prospect, stopped 29 shots for the Canadians.
Russia’s Pyotr Kochetkov had 30 saves.
In another Group A game, the Czech Republic scored two goals in the first period and went on to defeat Denmark 4-0.
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