Notre Dame's Danny Nelson scores twice, defending champ US beats Latvia 5-1 in world junior hockey

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Notre Dame forward Danny Nelson scored twice, Western Michigan’s Hampton Slukynsky made 25 saves and the defending champion United States beat Latvia 5-1 on Saturday in the world junior hockey championship.

The United States improved to 2-0 in Group A play, while Latvia dropped to 1-1 a day after stunning Canada with a 3-2 victory in a shootout.

“We saw some growth in our game today,” coach David Carle of Denver said. ”“Was it perfect? No. A lot of compliments to Latvia and how hard they played. We had to earn every inch of ice we got and that will help us as we move forward in the tournament.”

Boston College’s Ryan Leonard, Denver’s Zeev Buium and Minnesota Duluth’s Max Plante also scored for the Americans. They will be back in action Sunday at Canadian Tire Centre against Finland, then close group play Tuesday night against Canada.

Davids Livsics scored for Latvia. Linards Feldbergs stopped 36 shots after making 55 saves against Canada and stopping all eight attempts in the shootout.

In the only other game of the day, Czechia beat Kazakhstan 14-2 at TD Place. Czechia and Sweden are both 2-0 in Group B. Matej Mastalirsky, Vojtech Hradec and Jakub Stancl had hat tricks, with Hradec and Stancl also each assisting on two goals.

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