U.S. Tops Denmark, 7-1, at Men's Worlds

Alex DeBrincat (Farmington Hills, Mich.) registered two goals and an assist and Patrick Kane (Buffalo, N.Y.) added three assists as the U.S. Men's National Team defeated Denmark, 7-1, at the 2019 International Ice Hockey Federation Men's World Championship in Kosice, Slovakia.

“Schneids (U.S. goaltender Cory Schneider) made a couple of big saves early and I thought overall we got better as the game went on and picked up an important three points,” said Jeff Blashill, head coach of the 2019 U.S. Men’s National Team and also the bench boss of the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings. “We can still tighten up a little defensively, but overall I thought we made some good strides today."

With the win, the U.S. Men's National Team improves to 3-1-0-1 (W-OTW-OTL-L) in Group A play. The U.S. returns to action tomorrow (May 19) when it meets Germany here at Steel Arena for a 4:15 p.m. local time (10:15 a.m. ET) faceoff. That game, and every U.S. game, will be broadcast live in the U.S. on NHL Network.

Highlights

The game opened with Cory Schneider (Marblehead, Mass.) standing tall through the first five minutes of play by denying a series of Denmark chances to keep the game scoreless.

Feeding off the strong play of its goaltender, Team USA took control shortly thereafter as its ability to sustain pressure through the remainder of the period generated four unanswered goals.

Frank Vatrano (East Longmeadow, Mass.) started the scoring just past the midway point of the frame when he and Derek Ryan (Spokane, Wash.) finished a 2-on-0 breakaway opportunity. Noah Hanifin (Norwood, Mass.) generated the play in the defensive zone when a breakout pass intended for Jack Eichel (North Chelmsford, Mass.) fell onto the stick of Ryan, who skated in on goal uncontested before sliding the puck to Vatrano for the game's opening goal.

The U.S. doubled its lead 29 seconds later when DeBrincat converted on Team USA's first powerplay of the game. Just 15 seconds into the man-advantage, Kane rifled a shot off a pass from Ryan Suter (Madison, Wis.) that was blocked in traffic before DeBrincat found the loose puck and lifted a shot under the glove of Danish goaltender Simon Nielsen.

With 6:30 to play in the opening frame, Schneider was called on with another strong save, this time foiling Denmark's Morten Poulsen wraparound chance at the left post to keep Denmark off the scoreboard.

Just two minutes after that chance, Clayton Keller (St. Louis, Mo.) pushed the U.S. lead to 3-0 when an initial shot from Suter was deflected by James van Riemsdyk (Middletown, N.J.) and off Keller's back and into goal.

Chris Kreider (Boxford, Mass.) then made it 4-0 off a nice feed from Jack Hughes (Orlando, Fla.) with 1:11 to play in the frame. Eichel initiated the goal by entering Denmark's zone and leaving the puck for an oncoming Hughes who lifted a backhanded pass over the sticks of two Denmark defenders and into the slot for Kreider to slide the puck between Nielsen's legs for Team USA's fourth goal of the period.

Denmark cut the U.S. lead to 4-1 less than five minutes into the second period off the stick of Nick Olesen.

Seven minutes later, DeBrincat tallied his second goal of the game to regain Team USA's four-goal lead. After Colin White (Hanover, Mass.) won a faceoff to the right of Denmark's goal, Kane picked up the puck and found DeBrincat at the far post for a tap-in goal.

With 6:43 to play in the period, Larkin pushed the U.S. lead to 6-1 when he collected a pass from Ryan at the blue line, skated into the slot and fired a shot over the right pad of Denmark's goaltender Patrick Gailbrath.

In the final stanza, Eichel tallied his first goal of the tournament at the 11:19 to account for the 7-1 final.

Schneider finished with 21 saves on 22 shots to register his third win of the tournament.

Photos

Postgame Comments

Ryan Suter

Alex DeBrincat

Jeff Blashill

NOTES: Dylan Larkin was named the U.S. Player of the Game ... The U.S. outshot Denmark, 26-22, went 1-for-4 on the powerplay and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill. For complete stats, click here ... Head Coach Jeff Blashill picked up his 18th career win in 23 games in world championship play to become the all-time winningest U.S. coach in world championship history (top division only) ... For complete coverage of the U.S. Men’s National Team, visit teamusa.usahockey.com/2019mensworlds … The official IIHF home of the 2019 IIHF Men’s World Championship is 2019.IIHFWorlds.com.

Pregame Information

U.S. Game Schedule

Final Statistics

Date	Opponent/Round	Time (Local/ET)/Result	Location	Television	U.S. Player of the Game
Tues., May 7	Germany Pre-Tournament	W, 5-2	SAP Arena Mannheim, Germany	Live Stream	Johnny Gaudreau
Fri., May 10	Slovakia Preliminary	L, 1-4	Steel Arena Kosice, Slovakia	NHL Network	Jack Eichel
Sun., May 12	France Preliminary	W, 7-1	Steel Arena Kosice, Slovakia	NHL Network	Alex DeBrincat
Mon., May 13	Finland Preliminary	OTW, 3-2	Steel Arena Kosice, Slovakia	NHL Network	Brady Skjei
Wed., May 15	Great Britain Preliminary	W, 6-3	Steel Arena Kosice, Slovakia	NHL Network	Patrick Kane
Sat., May 18	Denmark Preliminary	W, 7-1	Steel Arena Kosice, Slovakia	NHL Network	Dylan Larkin
Sun., May 19	Germany Preliminary	W, 3-1	Steel Arena Kosice, Slovakia	NHL Network	Alec Martinez
Tues., May 21	Canada Preliminary	L, 0-3	Steel Arena Kosice, Slovakia	NHL Network	Cory Schneider
Thurs., May 23	Russia Quarterfinal	L, 3-4	Ondrej Nepela Arena Bratislava, Slovakia	NHL Network	Jack Hughes