U.S. edges Canada in worlds opener

HERNING, Denmark — With Connor McDavid forced to watch a shootout from the bench, Canada opened the 2018 world hockey championship by coming up short against the archrival Americans.

Cam Atkinson scored the shootout winner to give the United States a 5-4 win over Canada on Friday. Atkinson’s second shootout goal gave the U.S a 2-1 edge midway through the sixth round of the extra session.

Jordan Eberle had a chance to tie for Canada, but he couldn’t beat American goalie Keith Kinkaid.

McDavid, Canada’s captain and offensive catalyst, was ineligible for the shootout after taking a penalty late in overtime.

“It’s not fun to watch your team go through a shootout, especially when you’re an offensive guy and you’d obviously like to be out there,” he said. “I thought the guys did a nice job of hanging in there.”

Canada showed plenty of speed and skill, but had to come back from two one-goal deficits to force overtime before falling in the shootout.

The Canadians outshot the U.S. 44-24 through 65 minutes at Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning, Denmark.

Canada held the early edge in play and jumped out to a 2-0 first-period lead on goals from Pierre-Luc Dubois and Ryan O’Reilly. But the Americans stuck with their game plan and found a way to exploit Darcy Kuemper, who struggled with shots to his blocker side.