U.S. takes juniors bronze in a rout

• That had to be more to Bob Motzko’s liking.

A day after the United States coach was mystified by his team’s play in a semifinal loss at the 2018 world junior hockey championship, the Americans recovered, beating the Czech Republic on Friday 9- 3 to win bronze.

Boston Bruins prospect Trent Frederic scored four goals to lead the Americans, who have won a medal at the world junior in three consecutive years.

Frederic plays at Wisconsin and was selected by the Boston Bruins in the first- round of the 2016 draft. His four goals were one short of matching a U. S. single-game record at the world juniors. Wally Chapman scored five times against Switzerland in 1984 and Chris Bourque had five against Norway in 2005.

The U. S. won gold last year in Montreal, beating Canada, a victory which followed bronze win in Finland in 2016.

The bronze is the sixth the U. S. has won in world junior history.

In total, the U. S. upped its medal total to 11 ( four gold, one silver and six bronze), with two of the third- place finishes coming in Buffalo, where the tournament was also held in 2010-11.

Kieffer Bellows, a New York Islanders draft pick, scored two goals to give him nine in the tournament. That set a U. S. record for most goals in one world junior, eclipsing the eight that Jeremy Roenick scored in the 1989 tournament in Alaska.

Bitter after a 4- 2 l oss against Sweden in a semi on Thursday, the Americans never let the Czechs get untracked, holding them without a shot on goal through the first 13 minutes of the game.

In a mostly empty KeyBank Center — and many of the fans who bothered to attend were wearing Canada sweaters — Frederic scored short- handed with 3.4 seconds to play in the first period, and Ryan Poehling made it 2- 0 during the same Czech power play nine seconds into the second.

The U. S. ran it up in the second period, scoring six times to take a 7- 0 lead into the third.

Joey Anderson also scored for the Americans, who got 32 saves from goalie Jake Oettinger.

In the final period, Martin Kaut, Radovan Pavlik and Daniel Kurovsky scored for the Czechs. Frederic scored his fourth of the game for the Americans, and Patrick Harper scored with less than three minutes remaining.

The Czechs were attempting to win their first medal since 2005, when they took bronze in North Dakota.