Eirik Salsten of Norway and Neal Pionk battle for the puck at the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship on May 13, 2018 in Herning, Denmark.
The U.S. men’s ice hockey team struck quickly Sunday.
Team captain Patrick Kane of the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks began the offensive party by scoring the first two goals in the first period. That set the tone as the U.S. went on for a 9-3 victory over Norway in the preliminary round of the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Herning, Denmark.
The victory was a historic sixth straight for the U.S. – a feat never before reached for Team USA in the main tournament of a standalone worlds. The U.S., which will have a first- or second-place finish in Group B, closes out preliminary round play Tuesday against Finland, which is currently the second-place team in the group. The game begins at 6:15 a.m. ET.
The playoff round begins with the quarterfinals on Thursday.
Eight U.S. players scored in Sunday’s game and three of the goals came on power plays. The U.S. scored the game’s first four goals and outshot Norway 48-26.
In addition to Kane, other U.S. goal scorers were Charlie McAvoy, Dylan Larkin, Alec Martinez, Anders Lee, Cam Atkinson, Colin White and Neal Pionk.
Keith Kinkaid played the first two periods in goal for the U.S., and Scott Darling finished up in the final period.
Paul D. Bowker has been writing about Olympic sports since 1996, when he was an assistant bureau chief in Atlanta. He is sports editor of the Cape Cod Times and a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
