Finland's Jani Nyman, centre right, in action during the IIHF World Junior Championship group A ice hockey match between Latvia and Finland at Scandinavium in Gothenburg, Sweden Friday, Dec. 29, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/TT News Agency via AP-Björn Larsson Rosvall
GOTHENBURG, Sweden – Slovakia scored four power-play goals in an 8-4 victory over Norway on Friday at the world junior hockey championship.
Servac Petrovsky and Dalibor Dvorsky each had two goals and two assists to lead Slovakia (3-0-0-0) to its third straight victory of the preliminary round.
Norway (0-0-0-3) remained winless at the under-20 tournament.
Samuel Honzek, Juraj Pekarcik, Peter Repcik and Luka Radivojevic had the other goals for the Slovaks, who led 7-1 after two periods.
Michael Brandsegg-Nygard scored twice for Norway. Stian Solberg and Petter Vesterheim added singles.
Slovakia, which outshot Norway 35-26, will play the United States on Saturday. Norway will face Switzerland.
FINLAND 4 LATVIA 0
Noa Vali stopped 23 shots for the shutout as Finland blanked Latvia.
Jere Lassila opened the scoring in the first period and assisted on the three other goals.
Jesse Pulkkinen, Kasper Halttunen and Oiva Keskinen rounded out the scoring for the Finns (1-0-0-2), who booked a quarterfinal berth with the victory.
Deivs Rolovs made 39 saves for Latvia (0-0-0-3), which will play Germany on Saturday.
Finland will close out its preliminary round on Sunday against host Sweden.
UNITED STATES 4 CZECHIA 3 (SHOOTOUT)
Isaac Howard opened and closed the scoring for the United States in a close Group B matchup.
Howard scored in the first period and had the winner in the seventh round of a shootout. The Americans will play unbeaten Slovakia for the top seed in the group on Sunday.
Will Smith and Ryan Chesley had the other goals for the United States (2-1-0-0).
Jakub Stancl, Adam Bares and Robin Sapousek tallied for the Czechs (1-0-1-1), who will play Switzerland on New Year’s Eve.
SWEDEN 2 CANADA 0
Sweden wrapped up first place in Group A with a shutout win over Canada.
Tom Willander and Noah Ostlund scored second-period goals and Hugo Havelid made 21 saves for the shutout. The host team improved to 3-0-0-0 and has yet to allow a goal at the tournament.
Mathis Rousseau stopped 22 shots for Canada (2-0-0-1).
The defending champions will be back in action Sunday against Germany.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 29, 2023.
