RIGA, Latvia — Trevor Moore scored twice in the second period and the United States bounced back from an opening-game loss in a big way on Sunday, defeating Canada, 5-1, at the world hockey championships.
Jason Robertson, Adam Clendening and Matt Tennyson also tallied for Team USA, which lost to Finland to begin the preliminary round on Saturday.
Maxime Comtois had the lone goal for Canada, which is tied with Italy for last place in Group B after its second straight defeat.
With the Stanley Cup Playoffs in full swing, and many other NHL players from eliminated teams deciding not to participate in the worlds, Team USA’s roster is not as star-laden as in years past.
As such, coach Jack Capuano has a collection of largely young NHLers and players from the American Hockey League, in addition to some NHL veterans like Brian Boyle, 36, who were not on active rosters this season.
Still, a Team USA victory over Team Canada is something to cherish, and Capuano knows that. The margin of victory, in fact, was the largest ever for any Team USA win over its biggest rival in tournament history.
“We’ve talked about coming together as a brotherhood and being hard to play against and our guys got rewarded for that here tonight,” he said. “Offensively, I liked the way our guys paid attention to detail and now it’s a matter of continuing that as we move forward here.”
The Americans scored three times in the second period, were helped in net by Jake Oettinger and his 26 saves.
After an off day, Team USA will take on Kazakhstan in its third of seven preliminary-round games on Tuesday. Canada, which opened the tournament with a 2-0 loss to host Latvia, will play Germany Monday at the Riga Arena.
In other games Sunday, Switzerland blanked Denmark, 1-0, and Kazakhstan edged Finland, 2-1, in a shootout. Belarus shut out Sweden, 1-0, Slovakia defeated Great Britain 2-1 and Norway topped Italy, 4-1.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.