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U.S. romps; Canada next

Associated Press

OTTAWA – The United States coasted into the world junior hockey championship playoffs with a 12-0 rout of Kazakhstan on Tuesday night with two of the goals coming from a pair of Spokane Chiefs – Mitch Wahl and Drayson Bowman.

The U.S. will play Canada in a matchup of 3-0-0 teams today with the top spot in Group A on the line. The matchup will pit Wahl, Bowman and Tyler Johnson against fellow Chief, goaltender Dustin Tokarski.

Kazakhstan (0-3-0) will head to the relegation round.

Aaron Palushaj lead the U.S. with two goals and two assists. Colin Wilson also had two goals, while James van Riemsdyk and Ian Cole each had a goal and two assists. Wahl, Bowman, Matt Rust, Mike Hoeffel, Jimmy Hayes and Danny Kristo had the other U.S. goals. Kevin Shattenkirk added three assists.

Goaltender Thomas McCollum made 10 saves to earn the shutout.

Andrei Yankov made 49 saves on 61 shots for Kazakhstan.

Also Tuesday, Nikita Filatov scored three goals and Russia remained perfect with an 8-1 win over Slovakia.

Filatov opened the scoring at 2:12 of the first period and then scored power-play goals at 4:29 and 9:15 of the second to give the Russians leads of 4-1 and 6-1. He later added a third-period assist. Filatov, the No. 6 overall pick of Columbus in the 2008 draft, had one goal in four games this season with the Blue Jackets.

Defensemen accounted for three of the other five Russian goals, with Maxim Goncharov scoring twice and Igor Golovkov once.

Sergei Andronov had a goal and three assists while Sergei Korostin had the game’s final goal. Russia 3-0-0 in Group B play and will face Sweden (3-0-0) today.

The winner will clinch the group and advance to the semifinals on Saturday while the loser will play a quarterfinal Friday.

Slovakia (1-2-0) will play its final game of the preliminary round today against Finland, which improved to 1-2-0 with a 5-1 win over Latvia.

Also, the Czech Republic earned a spot in the playoff round with a 6-0 win over Germany. Timo Pielmeier made 47 saves in defeat for the Germans (1-3-0).