2018 IIHF World Junior Championship

CANADIANS SCORE BY COMMITTEE, WIN GROUP AT WORLD JUNIORS

JASON LA ROSE

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Brett Howden (Oakbank, Man./Moose Jaw, WHL) led a balanced offence with two goals, and Canada's National Junior Team earned first place in Group A at the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship with an 8-0 win over Denmark on Saturday night.

The Canadians will wait until the end of preliminary-round play on Sunday to find out who and when they play in the quarter-finals on Tuesday. They will face the fourth-place team from Group B to open the medal round.

Canada spread around the scoring against the Danes - seven players scored goals, and 15 of the 20 skaters recorded at least one point. Cal Foote (Kelowna, B.C./Kelowna, WHL) finished with three assists, while Michael McLeod (Mississauga, Ont,/Mississauga, OHL) and Alex Formenton (King City, Ont./London, OHL) added a goal and a helper apiece.

Carter Hart (Sherwood Park, Alta./Everett, WHL) made 18 saves to record the shutout.

Robert Thomas (Aurora, Ont./London, OHL) was first on the board for the Canadians, stuffing a shot short-side on Danish netminder Emil Gransoe just 3:52 in.

Howden got his first at 17:21, banging in a loose puck, and Sam Steel (Sherwood Park, Alta./Regina, WHL) found a rebound in the crease with 20.4 seconds left in the first period to make it 3-0 after 20 minutes.

A pair of goals midway through the second period pushed the advantage to five; Cale Makar (Calgary, Alta./University of Massachusetts, HE) snapped in a power-play goal at 7:52 before Howden redirected a shot from Foote just 88 seconds later.

Canada kept its foot on the gas in the third, directing 19 of its 44 shots at Gransoe in the final frame.

Formenton made good on a mini-breakaway less than four minutes in, going upstairs in a hurry over the shoulder of Gransoe, and McLeod jumped on a turnover at the Danish blue-line and wired in the seventh Canadian goal at 9:03.

Drake Batherson (New Minas, N.S./Cape Breton, QMJHL) finished the scoring at 12:26, redirecting a feed from Foote for another power-play goal.

Hart came up big early, stopping Joachim Blichfeld on a pair of first-period breakaways, and turned aside seven shots in each of the final two periods to finish the shutout.