The United States dominated in an 11-3 win over Denmark in both team’s World Junior Championship opener Monday night at Edmonton’s Rexall Place.
Former Boston University forward Charlie Coyle led the way with a hat trick for Team USA, while Kyle Rau (Minnesota) tallied a pair.
“We didn’t want to take them lightly,” said Coyle to IIHF.com. “We knew it wasn’t going to be that easy right off the bat. We kind of had a slow start. We knew we had to pick it up after the first period and we did. We needed to work on things. We can’t get sloppy. We need to continue to play solid in all three zones.”
Team captain Jason Zucker (Denver) had a goal and two assists, Austin Czarnik (Miami) added two helpers, as did Emerson Etem, Derek Forbort (North Dakota) and Adam Clendening (BU).
Nick Bjugstad (Minnesota), J.T. Miller, Bill Arnold (Boston College), Stephen Johns (Notre Dame) and Jarred Tinordi also scored for Team USA.
Jack Campbell finished with 21 saves in goal.
All three of Denmark’s goals came on the power play.
“We still have plenty of work to do,” said U.S. coach Dean Blais in a news release. “But getting that first win under our belts was important and there was a lot of good to build on.”
The United States next plays Finland in Edmonton on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. MST.
