TAMPERE, Finland–– The United States had to fight hard to overcome Germany 3-2 for a third victory in three games at the Ice Hockey World Championship.
Canada had to dig even deeper to prevail against Slovakia 2-1 in a shootout.
Matt Coronatto, Sean Farrell and Ronnie Attard each scored for the Americans and T.J. Tynan had two assists at Nokia Arena. Goaltender Casey DeSmith made 30 saves.
Coronatto scored the winner on a power play with 5:10 to go to complete the rally in the final period after Farrell tied the score at 2-2 in the same frame.
After the Germans limited the US to four shots in the opening period, Attard broke the scoreless deadlock at 5:39 into the middle period.
Germany came back with Samuel Soramies’ equalizer from a short-handed goal followed by Justin Schutz giving them the lead with 5 seconds to go on a breakaway.
In Group A in Riga, Jack Quinn scored the winner for Canada in the eighth round of the shootout with a shot high into the roof of the net.
Canada goaltender Sam Montembeault clinched the win by stopping Martin Chromiak on Slovakia’s final shootout attempt.
“It is a little bit nerve-racking, and shootouts are not usually the best part of my game,” Montembeault said. “It’s a one-on-one situation and you never know what could happen, but I know I needed to do my part.
“We got a big goal (from Quinn) and I just needed to make the last save.”
Jake Neighbours scored in regulation for Canada just after a slashing penalty to Slovakia’s Richard Panik expired.
Canada leads Group A with eight points (two regulation wins, one overtime win) in three games.
Peter Cehlarik scored for Slovakia with Milan Lucic in the penalty box for holding.
Canada was 0-for-8 on the power play, including two 5-and-3 opportunities and a five-minute major to Libor Hudacek for boarding.
“We need to do some fine-tuning on the power play because we were forcing plays today, but I thought our five-on-five play was solid,” Canada head coach Andre Tourigny said.
“We did not give (Slovakia) much to work with aside from a few minor breakdowns, and I like the way our game is progressing.”
Slovakia, which is fourth in the group with four points (one win, one loss, one overtime loss), was 1-for-9 with the man advantage.
Earlier, Jake Neighbours put the Canadians 1-0 ahead, shooting in between the pads of goaltender Samuel Hlavaj. Peter Cehlarik tapped in the equalizer from close range in the opening period, and the game remained scoreless until overtime.
Canada outshot Slovakia 44-24.
