The United States beat Germany 11-1 in the quarterfinals of Junior hockey
MONCTON, New Brunswick (AP) — Minnesota freshman Logan Cooley had three goals and an assist and UMass sophomore Ryan Ufko had five goals as the United States beat Germany 11-1 on Monday in the quarterfinals of the World Junior Hockey Championship.
Red Savage of Miami (Ohio) and Cutter Gauthier of Boston College added two goals apiece for the Americans, who beat Germany 41-22.
Minnesota’s Jimmy Snuggerud, North Dakota’s Blake Jackson, UMass’ Kenny Connors and Michigan’s Dylan Duke rounded out the scoring for the U.S., which will face either Canada or Sweden on Wednesday in Halifax, Nova Scotia in a semifinal game for a medal. for the fifth time in the last seven world juniors.
The USA led 3-0 in the first period. Cooley scored 3:51 into the game, and Snuggerud made it 2-0 with a pot goal eight minutes later. 39 seconds later, Savage converted Ufko’s feed.
“I liked the way we started and I thought we did what we needed to do tonight,” said U.S. coach Rand Pecknold, who is also the head men’s hockey coach at Quinnipiac University. “We are excited to get to Halifax and play in the semi-finals.”
The USA attack continued in the second period with two goals from Gauthier and goals from Jackson, Cooley and Savage.
The USA finished the scoring in the third period with goals from Connors, Cooley and Duke.
Edmonton Oil Kings’ Luca Hauf scored a late shorthanded goal for Germany.
Both teams changed goalkeepers for the third period. American Trey Augustine had 14 saves and Andrew Okella had seven. In Germany, Nikita Quapp made 20 saves and Rihards Babulis 10.
In Monday’s other quarterfinals, Sweden defeated rival Finland 3-2 in Moncton, the Czech Republic defeated Switzerland 9-1 and defending champion Canada met Slovakia in Halifax.
The second semi-final match depends on the result of the match between Canada and Slovakia.
Victor Stjernborg scored a shorthanded goal with 65 seconds left to give Sweden a win over Finland.
Finland took a 2-1 lead in the third period when Niko Huuhtanen scored just over four minutes into the final.
Pressing for an equalizer, Sweden tied the game when Leo Carlsson scored his second goal with less than four minutes remaining.
Finland had a chance to regain the lead when Sweden’s Fabian Lysell was penalized for a high tackle with less than two minutes left in the match. But instead, Stjernborg won the puck at center ice after a Swedish clearance, then skated alone and beat Finnish goaltender Jani Lampinen for the game-winning goal.
Jiri Kulich scored two goals and provided two assists in the Czech Switzerland match.
The Czech Republic is the best team in the quarterfinals after finishing the preliminary round with the highest 10 points of the tournament.
Elsewhere, Latvia defeated Austria 5-2 in the opening match of the best-of-three knockout series. The teams will meet again on Wednesday. The winner of the series will make it to next year’s World Junior Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, while the loser will be relegated to the A group of the I division.
___
AP Sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports