MONCTON, N.B. — Minnesota freshman Logan Cooley had three goals and an assist and UMass sophomore Ryan Ufko set up five goals as the United States beat Germany 11-1 on Monday in the quarterfinals of the world junior hockey championship.
Red Savage, from Miami (Ohio), and Cutter Gauthier, of Boston College, added two goals apiece for the Americans, who outshot 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 matchup and for a medal for the fifth time in the last seven world juniors.
The U.S. raced to a 3-0 lead in the first period. Cooley scored 3:51 into the game and Snuggerud made it 2-0 with a power-play goal eight minutes in. Thirty-nine seconds later, Savage converted a pass from Ufko.
“I liked the way we started and 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’re excited to get to Halifax and play in the semifinals.”
The U.S. onslaught continued in the second period with two goals by Gauthier and scores from Jackson, Cooley and Savage.
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The U.S. rounded out the scoring in the third period with goals from Connors, Cooley and Duke
Luca Hauf, a member of the Edmonton Oil Kings, scored a late short-handed goal goal for Germany.
Both teams changed goaltenders for the third period. For the American, Trey Augustine finished with 14 saves and Andrew Oke had seven. For Germany, Nikita Quapp had 20 saves and Rihards Babulis 10.
In Monday’s other quarterfinals, Sweden defeated rival Finland 3-2 in Moncton, while Czechia downed Switzerland 9-1 and defending-champion Canada met Slovakia in Halifax.
The other semifinal matchup will depend on the outcome of the Canada-Slovakia game.
Victor Stjernborg scored a short-handed goal with 65 seconds remaining to put Sweden over Finland.
Finland took a 2-1 lead in the third period when Niko Huuhtanen scored just over four minutes into the final frame.
Pressing for an equalizer, Sweden tied the score when Leo Carlsson scored his second of the game with less than four minutes remaining.
Finland had an opportunity to regain the lead when Sweden’s Fabian Lysell was penalized for high-sticking with under two minutes to go in regulation. But instead Stjernborg won the puck at centre ice after a Swedish clear, then skated in alone and beat Finnish goaltender Jani Lampinen for the winning goal.
Jiri Kulich had two goals and two assists in Czechia’s rout of Switzerland.
Czechia is the top-ranked team in the quarterfinals after finishing the preliminary round with a tournament-high 10 points.
Elsewhere, Latvia defeated Austria 5-2 in the opening game of a best-of-three relegation series. The teams meet again Wednesday. The winner of the series will appear at next year’s world juniors in Goteborg, Sweden, while the loser will be relegated to Division I Group A.
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