COLOGNE, Germany – Clayton Keller (St. Louis, Mo./Arizona Coyotes/Boston University) netted a hat trick and Anders Lee (Edina, Minn./New York Islanders/University of Notre Dame) scored two goals to lead the U.S. Men’s National Team to a 7-2 victory over Denmark in the second preliminary round game for both teams here at the 2017 International Ice Hockey Federation Men’s World Championship at LAXNESS Arena.
“It was nice to get a win under our belts,” said Jeff Blashill, head coach of the 2017 U.S. Men’s National Team. “We did some good things tonight. I thought our power play took a step forward. We have plenty to work on, particularly from a defensive standpoint, but I really like the team we have and we’ll see how we do in our next test tomorrow night against a very good Sweden team.”
Lee opened the scoring for Team USA 5:37 into the game on the team’s first power play of the contest when he backhanded a loose puck past Denmark netminder Mads Christensen from the slot.
The U.S. doubled its lead with 6:54 left in the opening period when Keller beat Christensen with a shot from the right circle before Denmark made it 2-1 on a power-play tally by Morten Madsen 3:04 later.
Team USA regained a two-goal advantage with 1:01 left in the first period on its second power-play goal of the game when Johnny Gaudreau (Salem, N.J./Calgary Flames/Boston College) deflected Dylan Larkin’s (Detroit, Mich./Detroit Red Wings/University of Michigan) feed into the back of the net.
Nichlas Hardt tipped a shot past Connor Hellebuyck (Commerce, Mich./Winnipeg Jets/UMass Lowell) just over a minute into the second stanza to make the score 3-2.
The U.S. took control of the contest with three goals just 3:04 apart in the closing minutes of the middle frame. First, Keller skated down the right wing, edged towards the goal and slid the puck past Christensen for his second goal of the game with 5:27 left in the period. Just 2:36 later, Lee buried a rebound for his second power-play goal of the contest before Brock Nelson (Warroad, Minn./New York Islanders/University of North Dakota) put home a nifty goal-mouth feed from Nick Schmaltz (Madison, Wis./Chicago Blackhawks/University of North Dakota) just :28 later to make it 6-2 after two periods.
Keller completed the hat trick when his centering pass deflected off of a defender’s skate and into the net with seven minutes to play.
Hellebuyck finished with 23 saves in the win.
Team USA (1-0-0-1; W-OTW-OTL-L) returns to action tomorrow (May 8) at 2:15 p.m. ET against Sweden. (Live on NHL Network; live stream on NBC Sports app and at NBCSports.com).
NOTES: Clayton Keller was named U.S. Player of the Game. Keller scored the first hat trick for a U.S. Men’s National Team player since May 8, 2013, when Craig Smith scored three times in a preliminary round game against Finland at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland … Team USA outshot Denmark, 34-25… The U.S. was 3-for-6 on the power play, while Denmark finished 1-for-5 … For complete game stats, click here … NHL Network’s live game schedule for the IIHF Men’s World Championship is available here … The official online home of the 2017 IIHF Men’s World Championship is IIHFWorlds2017.com … Join the conversation using #2017MWC.
Team USA Schedule
2017 IIHF Men’s World Championship
Date Opponent Round
Location
Time(Local/ET)/Result
May 2 Italy Pre-Tournament Milan, Italy W, 5-2
May 5 Germany Preliminary Cologne, Germany L, 1-2
May 7 Denmark Preliminary Cologne, Germany W, 7-2
May 8 Sweden Preliminary Cologne, Germany 8:15 p.m./2:15 p.m.
May 10 Italy Preliminary Cologne, Germany 4:15 p.m./10:15 a.m.
May 13 Latvia Preliminary Cologne, Germany 12:15 pm./6:15 a.m.
May 14 Slovakia Preliminary Cologne, Germany 4:15 p.m./10:15 a.m.
May 16 Russia Preliminary Cologne, Germany 4:15 p.m./10:15 a.m.
May 18 TBD Quarterfinals TBD TBD
May 20 TBD Semifinals Cologne, Germany 3:15 p.m./9:15 a.m.
7:15 p.m./1:15 p.m.
May 21 TBD Bronze/Gold-Medal Games Cologne, Germany 4:15 p.m./10:15 a.m.
8:45 p.m./2:45 p.m.
