Canada tops group after easy victory

BUFFALO, New York — Brett Howden scored twice as Canada routed Denmark 8-0 on Saturday to win Group A at the world junior hockey championships.

As the top seed in Group A, Canada will face the fourth place team from Group B in the quarterfinals on Tuesday. Their opponent will be the Czech Republic or Switzerland, depending on the result of their game today.

Carter Hart had an 18-save shutout for Canada (3-0-1).

Robert Thomas, Sam Steel, Cale Makar, Alex Formenton, Michael McLeod and Drake Batherson rounded out the attack as the Canadians dominated play throughout the game.

Emil Gransoe stopped 36 shots for Denmark (0-3), which closes out the preliminary round today against Slovakia.

Even though Canada and the United States could both finish the preliminary round with three wins — pending the Americans’ game against Finland today — the Canadians take top spot in Group A because all three of their wins came in regulation time, which is worth more points. Canada’s one loss was in the shootout, which earns them another point.

The Americans, who were idle Saturday, have won once in regulation, once in the shootout, and lost once in regulation.

Defenceman Dante Fabbro, who has struggled to get into game shape after missing most of Canada’s selection camp and two pre-season exhibitions with a lower-body contusion, did not play after the first intermission.

Head coach Dominique Ducharme said before the game that he would limit the playing time of some players who were banged up.

Thomas took a feed from Taylor Raddysh in the corner and fired an odd-angle shot on Gransoe, squeezing the puck by him to open scoring 3:52 into the first period.