“A lot of heart” from Americans contributes to win over Russia

UNITED STATES 3, RUSSIA 2

toronto» Colin White and Troy Terry scored second-period goals and Tyler Parsons made 25 saves to help the United States beat Russia 3-2 on Thursday in the world junior hockey championship.

The United States took the Group B lead, with Canada in position to match the Americans’ 30-0 start with a victory over Latvia on Thursday night.

Clayton Keller also scored in the United States’ first victory over Russia in the tournament since 2007.

“We showed a lot of heart today and did a great job shutting them down in the third,” Keller said. “All lines can score and have skill, but our best is yet to come. We’re on the right track.”

The Americans opened with a 6-1 victory over Latvia on Monday and beat Slovakia 5-2 on Wednesday. They will complete pool play Saturday against Canada.

“It’s a game you grow up watching, that New Year’s Eve game. To have it in Canada here, you grow up seeing that, we’re not going to be liked that’s for sure,” said Charlie McAvoy, a Boston University defenseman and Bruins prospect. “We’re not expecting much love. It’s going to be us against kind of their whole country.”

Kirill Urakov and Kiirill Kaprizov scored for Russia, and Ilya Samsonov made 34 saves.

White gave the U.S. a 2-1 lead on a power play at 4:03 of the second, putting the rebound of Charlie McAvoy’s point shot into the open net. Terry made it 3-1 with 8:19 left in the second.

White plays for Boston College, Terry for Denver, Parsons for London in the Ontario Hockey League, and Keller for Boston University. All four have been drafted by NHL teams: White by Ottawa in the first round in 2015, Terry by Anaheim in the fifth round in 2015, Parsons by Calgary in the second round this year, and Keller by Arizona in the first round this year.

In Group A in Montreal, Mathias From scored 47 seconds into overtime to give Denmark its first victory over the Czech Republic in tournament history, a 3-2 decision. Also at Bell Centre, Sweden beat Finland 3-1 to improve to 30-0. The defending champion Finns dropped to 0-3-0.