Florida Panthers rookie defenseman Michael Matheson scored a goal and added two assists in Canada’s 7-1 win over Hungary in Sunday action from Russia.
Matheson scored 12:45 into the second period to put Canada up 6-1. He collected his assists on goals by Brad Marchand and Taylor Hall. Derick Brassard, Corey Perry, Mark Scheifele and Mark Stone were the other Canadian scorers.
The 22-year-old finished the game with a +2 rating and four shots on goal in just 11:20 TOI.
Colorado’s Calvin Pickard wade 21 saves to post the win for Canada, which raised its record to 2-0.
Finland also upped its record to 2-0 in Group B, beating Germany by a 5-1 count on the strength of another superb performance from 18-year-old Patrik Laine, who scored two goals and an assist for the second straight game. After two games, Laine leads the tournament in scoring.
Jussi Jokinen collected helpers on Finland’s first two goals, first period power-play tallies by Laine and Leo Komarov. Jokinen finished the game with one shot on goal and even rating in 16:08 TOI.
Aleksander Barkov logged 16:16 TOI and fired three shots on German goalkeeper Timo Pielmeier. Like Jokinen, Barkov also posted an even rating.
In other games not involving Florida players, Russia got by Kazakhstan 6-4, Norway edged Switzerland 4-3, Sweden beat Denmark 5-2, and Slovakia skated by France 5-1.
Today’s action will see Matheson and Canada will taking on Belarus and Barkov, Jokinen and Finland facing off against the United States.