TORONTO — Colin White and Jordan Greenway scored early power-play goals and Joseph Woll made 25 saves to help the United States beat Canada 3-1 Saturday for the top spot in Group B in the World Junior Hockey Championship.
Jeremy Bracco also scored for the United States (4-0-0), set to play Switzerland in the quarterfinals Monday in Toronto.
Greenway plays at Boston University, White and Woll at Boston College, and Bracco for Kitchener in the Ontario Hockey League.
Canada (3-1-0) will play the Czech Republic in Montreal in the quarterfinals. In the other quarterfinals, Group A winner Sweden will face Slovakia in Montreal, and Russia will play Denmark in Toronto.
Thomas Chabot scored on a 5-on-3 power play for Canada.
The Americans scored on two of their first three shots.
With Tyson Jost off for goalie interference, White scored at 4:31 by one-timing a pass from Greenway. Canadian defenseman Philippe Myers was called for kneeing less than a minute later and the Americans again took advantage. Greenway gathered the puck down low and breezed through the top of the crease untouched to tuck the puck past Connor Ingram at 6:04.
US captain Luke Kunin was tossed from the game early in the second period. He flattened Myers behind the net and was given a five-minute interference major and game misconduct. Myers sustained a concussion.
Charlie McAvoy’s tripping penalty gave Canada its second 5-on-3 advantage, and Chabot crept in from the point to beat Woll at 8:12 of the second. Canada was 1 for 6 on power plays.
Bracco restored the two-goal edge with 6:52 left in the period.
Sweden beat the Czech Republic 5-2 in Montreal on Saturday for its 40th consecutive group stage victory since 2007. Ottawa draft pick Jonathan Dahlen had a hat trick and Rasmus Asplund and Jens Looke also scored for Sweden (4-0-0). David Kase and Filip Hronek scored for the Czech Republic (1-1-2).
The Swedes haven’t lost a group stage game since they fell in overtime to the United States in 2007.
Also in Montreal, Eeli Tolvanen and Aapeli Rasanen each had a goal and an assist and defending champion Finland responded to a coaching change with a 2-0 victory over Switzerland.
The Finns (0-1-3) outshot the Swiss 51-17. Finland will face Latvia in a best-of-three relegation playoff starting Monday at Bell Centre. Switzerland (1-2-1) finished fourth in the group.
In the late game in Toronto, Russia beat Slovakia 2-0. Denis Guryanov and Yakov Trenin scored for Russia (2-2-0), and Ilya Samsonov made 15 saves. Slovakia was 1-3-0 in pool play. — AP
