U.S. beats Slovakia 5-2 in world junior hockey championship

TORONTO – Boston College’s Joseph Woll made 18 saves to help the United States beat Slovakia 5-2 on Wednesday night in the world junior hockey championship.

Ohio State’s Tanner Laczynski, Boston College’s Colin White, Connecticut’s Tage Thompson, Boston University’s Charlie McAvoy and Denver’s Troy Terry scored.

“We were focused and ready to play,” said U.S. captain Luke Kunin of Wisconsin. “We did what we needed to do to be successful. We needed to get a good start and get pucks to the net. Everyone on the team contributed.”

The United States (2-0-0) tied Canada for the Group B lead. The Americans opened with a 6-1 victory over Latvia on Monday night. They will face Russia on Thursday, and complete pool play Saturday against Canada.

Martin Fehervary and Michal Roman scored for Slovakia (0-2-0), and Matej Tomek made 45 saves.

In Montreal, Minnesota Wild prospect Joel Eriksson-Ek broke a tie with 5:08 left with his second goal of the game and Sweden beat Switzerland 4-2. Lias Andersson and Lucas Carlsson also scored to help Sweden improve to 2-0-0 and take the Group A lead.

Carl Grundstrom set up the go-ahead goal, recovering the puck behind the Swiss net and sliding a backhand pass to Eriksson-Ek. Carlsson completed the scoring on a slap shot with 2:49 to go.

Jonas Siegenthaler and Calvin Thurkauf had power-play goals for Switzerland (1-1-0).