GAME STATS: UNITED STATES 5, CANADA 1

RIGA, Latvia – Maxime Comtois (Longueuil, Que./Anaheim, NHL) scored to end the tournament-opening scoring drought, but Canada’s National Men’s Team suffered a 5-1 loss to the United States on Sunday at the 2021 IIHF World Championship.

The loss leaves Canada without a win through two games at the worlds for the first time ever, dating back to 1930.

Comtois provided a bright spot midway through the third period; Nicolas Beaudin (Châteauguay, Que./Chicago, NHL) pinched in off the blueline and slung a perfect pass into the slot to Comtois, who went upstairs on U.S. goaltender Jake Oettinger.

Maxime Comtois breaks the ice to give Canada their first goal of the tournament! 🙌🇨🇦 #CANUSA #IIHFWorlds @hockeycanada @AnaheimDucks pic.twitter.com/4z6aPB6EgZ

— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) May 23, 2021

“We had been waiting for almost six periods to score our first goal, but that was an unbelievable play by [Beaudin],” Comtois said. “We talked about getting that first goal in the room, and after we scored we were able to play a little more loose. We know we are going to get chances and the goals will come, but it was definitely a relief to get that first one.”

With both teams having a game under their belts and the player familiar with one another the opening minutes were played at a frenetic pace, with chances at both ends.

“I really liked our play in the first period,” Canadian head coach Gerard Gallant said. “We came out and played the style of hockey we want to play. We had a really strong forecheck and got some good scoring opportunities early on.”

American netminder Anthony Stolarz left the game after just five minutes after appearing to roll his right ankle; Oettinger stepped in and finished with 26 saves.

Jason Robertson opened the scoring for the U.S. near the eight-minute mark of the opening frame, taking advantage of a miscue behind the Canadian net and tucking in the 1-0 goal.

Adam Clendening doubled the advantage just 79 seconds into the second period, getting a seeing-eye wrist shot from the point through traffic and past Canadian goaltender Darcy Kuemper (Saskatoon, Sask./Arizona, NHL), and Trevor Moore redirected a Robertson pass off his own skate and past Kuemper only 2:08 after that.

Moore added a second goal before the end of the middle stanza, burying a set-up from Conor Garland after a turnover deep in the Canadian zone.

Adin Hill (Calgary, Alta./Arizona, NHL) took over from Kuemper to begin the third period; Kuemper stopped 13 of 17 shots in his 40 minutes of work, and Hill turned aside five of six the rest of the way.

After Comtois finally got the monkey off the collective Canadian back at 11:35 of the third, Matt Tennyson squeezed a shot through Hill with three minutes to go to provide the final margin of victory.

“We need to make sure we manage the puck better because they scored two or three goals from the point with screens in front of our net,” Gallant said. “We need to take those shots away by getting in the shooting lanes and trying to block shots, but we also have to do a better job of letting our goalies see the puck.”

It will be a quick turnaround for the Canadians, who get right back to work against Germany on Monday (1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT).