Innsbruck, Austria – Rick Nash had two goals and an assist to lift Canada to a 3-1 victory over the United States on Thursday at the world hockey championships.
The 20-year-old star of the Columbus Blue Jackets snapped two ties with his goals and led Canada to its third consecutive victory in the opening round. Joe Thornton had Canada’s other goal, and Boston Bruins teammate Mike Knuble scored for the United States (2-1).
Nash has six goals in the tournament, playing on a line with Thornton and Simon Gagne.
“It feels good beating the U.S. and getting two points,” Nash said. “For our line to get all three goals is obviously good.”
Canada, the defending world champion, will play Sweden – the runner-up the past two years – in the qualification round Saturday. The Americans will play Finland today.
Latvia clinched a spot in the second round with a 3-1 victory over Slovenia.
Martins Cipulis and Atvars Tribuncovs scored in the first two periods for Latvia, and Girts Ankipans added an empty-netter with 25 seconds left to seal it.
The Czech Republic locked up first place in Group D by beating Kazakhstan 1-0 in Vienna on a second-period goal by Edmonton Oilers forward Ales Hemsky. The Czechs won their third in a row but struggled offensively without injured forward Jaromir Jagr.
Jagr, a five-time NHL scoring champion, broke the little finger on his left hand Tuesday when he was slashed by German defenseman Stefan Schauer. Jagr was fitted with a splint and rejoined the team Wednesday.
Switzerland beat Germany 5-1 in the second game at Vienna on Thursday. Switzerland (2-1) finished second in Group D while Germany was last (0-3).
Needing only a tie to win Group B based on goal differential, Canada took a 1-0 lead just 51 seconds into the second period on a great effort by Nash.
Nash tried a wraparound and the puck bounced high. He knocked it down with his left glove, skated backward away from the net and let go a low shot that got past goalie Rick DiPietro.
The United States tied it 1-1 at 5:16 of the second when Knuble stole the puck from defenseman Ed Jovanovski and whipped a shot between Martin Brodeur’s pads during a power play.
It was the third goal of the tournament for Knuble, who played in Sweden during this season’s NHL lockout.
Nash made it 2-1 while the teams were playing 4-on-4. Dan Boyle broke up an American rush and sent Nash in on a partial breakaway.
Nash made a nice move to protect the puck, then put in a shot off the crossbar at 11:29.
Thornton gave Canada a two-goal lead with a power-play goal at 12:42 of the third.
The Americans outshot Canada 14-4 in the opening period, but went 0-for-3 on the power play.
Nash provided the bulk of the offense, and deflected some of the praise.
“Look at our penalty killing in the first period, with (Kirk) Maltby killing all those penalties and a guy like Marty Brodeur making all those saves. … I can’t take all the credit,” Nash said.
During the final man-advantage, Brodeur made a nice double save when the Americans applied pressure.
Canada improved to 43-4-2 against the United States in the worlds since 1920.
“There’s still a lot of hockey to be played, and if we want to grab a medal out of this we have to play Canada again probably at some point,” Knuble said.
Kazakhstan’s Vitaly Kolesnik made 38 saves, but Hemsky took a pass from Martin Rucinsky and scored at 10:44.
Kazakhstan (1-2) had a power play in the final minutes, causing concern for the estimated 5,000 Czech fans in attendance, but Milan Hnilicka of the Toronto Maple Leafs stayed perfect and made 16 saves to earn the shutout in his first appearance.
Jurij Golicic had the only goal for Slovenia (0-3), shut out in the first two games during its world championships debut. Slovenia was outscored 15-0 in losses to the United States and Canada.
