By Canadian Press

Americans open world junior championship with victory over Slovakia

Dec 26, 2018 | 3:15 PM

VICTORIA — The Americans waited until the third period to turn it on against Slovakia and avoid an upset.

Trailing by a goal through 40 minutes, the United States scored twice in the third to beat Slovakia 2-1 on Wednesday in the first preliminary-round game for both squads at the 2019 world junior hockey championship.

Captain Mikey Anderson tied it 1:10 into the third before Evan Barratt scored the eventual winner a little over four minutes later for the U.S. (1-0-0) at Victoria’s Save-On-Foods-Memorial Centre, where all Group B games are being held. 

Barratt circled out from the corner and lifted a backhand over goaltender Samuel Hlavaj’s glove from the hash marks with the Slovakian netminder screened on the play at 5:42, and the Americans held on from there.

“That game was far from perfect, but good teams have to find ways to win tough games and this team did that here tonight,” said U.S. head coach Mike Hastings.

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Marek Korencik scored for Slovakia (0-1-0) with 2:43 to go in the second to give his country a chance for the upset.

Jason Robertson was stoned twice in the second by Hlavaj to keep the game scoreless. First Robertson was stopped on a breakaway in the period’s opening minute, then he was halted on a penalty shot.

American netminder Kyle Keyser made 13 saves for the win — including a stop on a penalty shot attempt from Andrej Kukuca with 6:45 to play and the Americans up a goal.

Hlavaj turned away 32 shots in defeat.

“If we pay attention to the little things, get all lines rolling, a lot of the challenges we created for ourselves here tonight will get cleaned up,” added Hastings. “Tomorrow we’ll address some detail, regroup and look to put together a good 60 minutes of hockey the next game.”

And, defenceman Erik Brannstrom scored twice as Sweden toppled Finland 2-1 in the other Group B round-robin game.

Brannstrom opened the scoring in the first period and secured the victory with by stepping into a one-timer at the top of the circle on a 5-on-3 power play 3:55 into the second.

Samuel Ersson made 29 saves for Sweden (1-0-0) in his tournament debut. 

Ukko-Pekka Lukkonen kept Finland (0-1-0) in it with 28 stops. Aarne Talvittie made it close with a power-play goal with 3:34 to play in the third.

Earlier, David Kvasnicka scored 52 seconds into overtime as the Czech Republic beat Switzerland 2-1 in the opening game of the tournament.

Kvasnicka took a pass from Martin Kaut and put a harmless looking wrist shot through traffic that beat a screened Luca Hollenstein over his glove hand.

Kaut scored at 9:02 of the second for the Czech Republic (1-0-0) to make it a 1-1 game through 40 minutes at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena, where all Group A games are being held.

Nando Eggenberger gave Switzerland (0-1-0) a short-lived 1-0 lead with a power-play goal just 1:17 before Kaut responded for the Czechs. 

Lukas Dostal made 26 saves for the win while Hollenstein stopped 25-of-27 shots in defeat.

Also, Maxime Comtois scored four goals and Morgan Frost registered a hat trick as Canada blanked Denmark 14-0 in Wednesday’s other Group A game.

Owen Tippett and Brett Leason each scored twice for Canada (1-0-0). Jack Studnicka, Jaret Anderson-Dolan and MacKenzie Entwistle also found the net, while Cody Glass tallied four assists. Michael DiPietro made 14 saves to earn the shutout.

Mads Sogaard stopped 30-of-41 shots for Denmark before he left the game with an apparent injury midway through the third period.

The Canadian Press