Canada beats Denmark and Crosby tallies 4 assists in third-period surge at hockey worlds

FRIBOURG, Switzerland (AP) — Canada scored five goals in the final period against Denmark and Sidney Crosby assisted on four of them in a 5-1 victory at the ice hockey world championship on Monday.

The Group B game in Fribourg was a rematch of last year’s quarterfinal when Denmark stunned star-studded Canada 2-1 and ended its quest for a 29th title.

This time Canada left it till late to translate its dominance into goals.

The Canadians needed 28 shots to break the deadlock despite Denmark goalie Nicolaj Henriksen playing his maiden game at the worlds.

Porter Martone scored the opener 28 seconds into the third period on a cross-goal pass by Crosby to put the favorite ahead.

Gabriel Vilardi doubled the advantage 3:02 into the frame and Denton Mateychuk buried a rebound 31 seconds later to make it 3-0 after Crosby set him up.

Ryan O'Reilly and Parker Wotherspoon finished the scoring with a goal each after Crosby found them unmarked in front of the net.

Teenage captain Macklin Celebrini had two assists and Jet Greaves stopped 15 shots.

Nick Olesen had the lone lone goal for Denmark.

It was the third straight win for Canada after dispatching Sweden 5-3 and Italy 6-0.

Canada next plays Norway on Thursday.

Czechia rebounded from an upset defeat to Slovenia by holding off Sweden 4-3 in Group B for a second win. It was the second loss from three for Sweden, the bronze medalist in the last two years.

The Czechs jumped to 3-0 in the opening 13 minutes before Sweden scored two power play goals to cut their lead to one. Jiří Černoch restored a two-goal advantage in the middle period for the Czechs and Oliver Ekman-Larsson used another power play for Sweden to reduce it to one.

US down again

It’s up and down for the defending champion United States at the worlds.

Lenni Hameenaho scored twice and assisted on another one to lead Finland past the U.S. 6-2 for a third straight win in Group A in Zurich.

The U.S. lost to host Switzerland 3-1 in the opener then defeated Britain 5-1.

Hameenaho wristed a shot past goalie Joseph Woll after a turnover to put Finland 1-0 up 6:06 into the game.

The U.S. came back 1:38 later thanks to Matt Coronato's one-timer.

Finland then pulled away with four straight goals.

Patrik Puistola and Aatu Raty scored in the first period followed in the middle period by Hameenaho on a power play and Saku Maenalanen 31 seconds apart.

That forced the U.S. to pull Woll, who allowed five goals from 10 shots, and send on Devin Cooley.

Ryan Leonard reduced the deficit with the second U.S. goal in the final period but Anton Lundell completed the victory.