US, Canada open women’s hockey worlds with wins

HERNING, Denmark — The United States routed Japan 10-0 in the opening game of the women’s hockey world championship and defending champion Canada started the tournament with a 4-1 victory over Finland.

The Americans had nine different scorers against Japan, with Alex Carpenter the only player to net twice.

Taylor Heise went scoreless but equaled a tournament record with five assists for the US, which led 9-0 after two periods and outshot Japan 62-6.

Olympic and world champion Canada faced tougher resistance from Finland, the bronze medallist at the Beijing Games in February, AP reported.

Marie-Philip Poulin had a goal and assist for Canada in the first period but Finland stayed within one goal until Meaghan Mikkelson made it 3-1 with seven minutes left of the second. Blayre Turnbull added the fourth into an empty net.

Finland missed a penalty at the end of the first period when Kiira Yrjanen’s shot was saved by Ann-Renee Desbiens.

Finland captain Jenni Hiirikoski set a tournament record by playing in her 14th world championship.

In Group B, Sweden beat host Denmark 5-2 behind a hat trick from Hanna Olsson and Hungary upset Germany 4-2.

The United States next plays Finland on Saturday, when Canada faces Switzerland. The two North American rivals are both in Group A and play each other in the last preliminary round on Tuesday.

Canada beat the US in the final of both last year’s worlds and the Olympics.

Elsewhere, for the Vegas Golden Knights, signing Phil Kessel to a one-year, $1.5 million deal was a way to bolster their depth at forward. For the 16-year NHL veteran, it was a chance to play for another team that can contend.

“Phil´s an established NHL veteran who has enjoyed great success,” Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon said, a day after the move was announced. “He´s been consistently productive over his entire career.

He´s been a Stanley Cup champion on two occasions, he has a high-end skill set, probably unique in some respects to the rest of our forwards, which is a little bit of where the appeal was for us.”

The 34-year-old Kessel, who has 399 goals and 557 assists in 1,204 career games with Boston, Toronto, Pittsburgh and Arizona, spent the past three seasons with the Coyotes. Arizona went 25-50-7 last season.