World Juniors: Stancl, Hradec, Mastalirsky’s hat tricks help Czechia rout Kazakhstan

Jakub Stancl and Vojtech Hradec each had three goals and two assists as Czechia thumped Kazakhstan 14-2 on Saturday at the world junior hockey championship.

Stancl now leads the international tournament with four goals and three assists.

Matej Mastalirsky also had a hat trick as Czechia (2-0-0-0) had eight goals in the second period alone. Adam Novotny, Vojtech Cihar, Adam Jecho,Petr Sikora, and Jakub Dvorak all added a goal in the rout.

Jan Kavan made 16 saves for the win in net.

Kirill Lyapunov and Alexander Kim replied for Kazakhstan (0-2-0-0).

Goaltender Vladimir Nikitin stopped 17-of-26 shots and Jokhar Dudarkiyev allowed five goals on 10 shots.

Later, Danny Nelson had a pair of goals as the United States beat Latvia 5-1.

Ryan Leonard, Zeev Buium and Max Plante rounded out the attack for the U.S. (2-0-0-0), while Hampton Slukynsky made 25 saves for the win.

Davids Livsics was the lone scorer for Latvia (0-1-0-1) a day after it stunned Canada 3-2 in a shootout.

Linards Feldbergs turned aside 36 shots in net.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 28, 2024.