Raddysh leads Canada’s rout of Latvia
OHL forward snipes 4 goals in 10-2 blowout; stage set for 1st-place showdown with the U.S.
TORONTO — Taylor Raddysh scored four goals and Matt Barzal chipped in with a pair as Canada dumped Latvia 10-2 on Thursday night to remain unbeaten at the world junior hockey championship.
Captain Dylan Strome had four assists as Canada improved its preliminary-round record to 3-0-0. Latvia, which has been outscored 25-4 in the tournament, fell to 0-3-0.
The victory moved Canada into a first-place tie with the United States in Group B. The Americans, who edged Russia 3-2 earlier in the day, will meet the host team in a New Year’s Eve showdown at Air Canada Centre.
Latvia played at a good pace in the early going and actually outshot Canada 10-9 in the opening period.
Barzal woke up the quiet Toronto crowd at 10:38 with a shorthanded goal. He sped past two Latvian players at the blue line and flipped the puck over the outstretched pad of Latvian netminder Mareks Mitens.
Canada made it 2-0 just over a minute later as Nicolas Roy tipped in a blast from Philippe Myers at the point.
Raddysh added a power-play goal with 20 seconds left in the period. He took a slick feed from Thomas Chabot and fired the puck under the crossbar.
Goalie Carter Hart, who helped Canada to a 5-3 win over Russia on Boxing Day, returned to the net after Connor Ingram posted a six-save shutout in a 5-0 win over Slovakia on Tuesday.
Hart was steady when called upon but the shots were infrequent and usually of middling quality. He wasn’t really tested until early in the second period when he made a nice glove save on a Martins Dzierkals snapshot from in close, though Dzierkals later scored.