Florida Panthers rookie Mike Matheson made his senior debut for Team Canada in a 5-1 win over the United States today at the IIHF World Championship in Moscow. Matheson logged 15:25 TOI, one shot on goal and finished the game with a +2 rating.
The U.S. took a 1-0 lead on Patrick Maroon‘s power-play goal 4:54 into the first period. Taylor Hall tied the game 31 seconds later and Brendan Gallagher‘s tally later in the frame stood up as the winner. Canada also got goals from Matt Duchene, Boone Jenner and Brad Marchand. Marchand’s goal came with his team shorthanded.
Edmonton’s Cam Talbot made 24 stops to post the win, while Keith Kinkaid of the New Jersey Devils took the loss for the outclassed Americans, finishing with 28 saves.
Aleksander Barkov set up two goals and Jussi Jokinen also added a helper as Finland routed Belarus by a 6-2 count. Youngster Patrik Laine, who is expected to go second in the upcoming draft behind Auston Matthews, scored twice and added an assist.
Barkov played 15:58 and collected the only assist on Laine’s game-opening goal and drew the secondary helper on Mikael Granlund‘s goal that made it 4-1. He finished with two shots on goal and an even rating.
Jokinen combined with Mikko Koivu to set up Laine’s second goal of the game, which came on a second period power play. He finished with no shots on goal and an even rating.
In other action not involving Florida players, Sweden edged Latvia 2-1 and the Czech Republic blanked Russia by a 3-0 count.