Canada on top heading into world hockey quarter-finals

Mitch Marner scored twice on Tuesday and the power play continued to roll as Team Canada finished its preliminary round at the world hockey championship with a 5-2 win over Finland.

The Canadians scored early and often, with Marner notching his third and fourth goals of the tournament in an opening period that saw Canada outshoot the Finns 15-6. Colton Parayko, Brayden Point and Matt Duchene also scored for Canada.

Marner opened the scoring 2:46 into the game off an impressive toe drag after a feed from Point.

Jani Lajunen replied for the Finns to even the score at 1-1 just 22 seconds later.

The Canadians power play then went to work, with Marner setting up Parayko for his third goal of the tournament before scoring his second of the game to give Canada a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes.

Canada finished the preliminary round with 12 power-play goals on 25 attempts, second in efficiency behind Russia (13 for 24).

The final shots on goal were 28-20 in favour of Canada.

With the win, Canada finishes the preliminary round with a tournament-best 19 points and a 6-0-0-1 record. The Canadians will play co-host Germany in the quarter-finals in Cologne on Thursday.

Germany claimed the last playoff spot in the group with a 4-3 shootout win over Latvia.

The other quarter-final in Cologne will see the United States face Finland.

The United States came back three times to hand Russia its first defeat 5-3 and top Group A with its sixth straight win.

Kevin Hayes scored two goals in his second game at the tournament as the U.S. outshot Russia 35 to 19. The Russians will take on the Czech Republic in Paris on Thursday, while Switzerland meets Sweden.