USA Dominant Again in Drubbing of Norway

The strong tournament continues for the United States, who took their sixth-straight victory of the 2018 World Hockey Championships thanks to a big 9-3 win over Norway on Sunday afternoon in Denmark.

One of the biggest stories of the tournament was Norway's inability to defend while shorthanded, highlighted by three goals against by Denmark in their previous game. It got even worse when the Americans scored on their first two power play chances in the first period, with Patrick Kane scoring a pair to take the tournament lead with 14 points. At 8:24, Charlie McAvoy found the American sniper to the left of the Norweigan net, with Kane sending a one-timer past Lars Haugen's glove to make it 1-0.

Then, 12:18, Kane scored on another power play chance when he Cam Atkinson saw Alex DeBrincat at the goal line, with DeBrincat finding his Chicago teammate, Kane, in front. Kane was all alone in front, knocking the puck past Haugen to make it 2-0.

Three minutes later, DeBrincat set up another goal. This time, he waited until McAvoy got in the zone undetected, forcing three Norwegians to fall for the bait. McAvoy scored on a shot in close, scoring his seventh point in just four periods to make himself the tournament scoring leader for defencemen. 

Norway's tournament continued to get worse. They would allow their sixth straight penalty kill goal against when Dylan Larkin stole the puck from Jan Holos from the high slot, sending a wicked wrist shot over Haugen's glove to make it 4-0 at 1:03 in the second.

For the first time in a full week, Norway finally found a way to score. At 7:00 in the second, Tobias Lindstrom found Kristian Forsberg in front of the net, with Forsberg outlasting a poke check opportunity from Keith Kinkaid to make it 4-1, giving the Norwegians a bit of relief. 

But things would get worse for Norway. At 10:38 in the second, Haugen's night would come to an end after Larkin used his speed to move the puck around without many challenges, beating out two defenders. He then found Alec Martinez all alone to the right of the crease, with Martinez's wrist shot bouncing off of Haugen's blocker before bouncing up and off his leg, giving USA the 5-1 lead.

At 16:40 in the second, USA struck again. Anders Lee's third goal of the tournament would make it 6-1 after the puck went through the legs of Johannes Johannesen and down the ice. Johnny Gaudreau would then get the disk out to Larkin, who would set up Lee for the goal. It was Larkin's third point of the night, giving him eight points in the tournament. Atkinson would make things worse as time was winding down in the period, sending a rebound through the legs of Henrik Haukeland, giving USA the 7-1 lead into the second intermission.

The third period would start with Colin White scoring a bizarre goal after the puck bounced off the top of the net and back into play, with White knocking the puck just over the line before Haukeland could reach back and stop the puck. Norway would score two goals on their first seven shots of the period, giving Scott Darling a hard time after taking over for the third period, but Neal Pionk would get one with 2:33 left for the United States to help his nation hold on for the 9-3 win.

Norway will turn their attention to their big game against South Korea on Monday at 16:15 local time, a game that will decide who gets sent down to Division IA for 2019. USA will finish the round-robin with a game against Finland at 12:15, with USA well on their way to a strong record to end the opening round.

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