PRAGUE — Brady Tkachuk scored a goal and had three assists, Cole Caufield scored twice and the United States secured a playoff spot with a 4-1 win over Poland in the preliminary round of the men’s world hockey championship on Friday.
Michigan State goaltender Trey Augustine stopped 20 shots, including all 11 he faced in a scoreless first period. Michael Kesselring also scored for the Americans, who improved to 3-1-1 and moved into second place in the Group B standings.
John Murray, who has Polish roots and is from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, stopped 53 shots, including 34 of the first 36 he faced over two periods to keep the score tight. Grzegorz Pasiut scored Poland’s only goal, briefly cutting the U.S. lead to 3-1 with 13:38 remaining in the third period.
Poland have fallen to 0-4-1 and are at risk of relegation.
Kesserling, an NHL Utah defenseman, was set up by Tkachuk on a 3-on-1 run to open the scoring at 9:49 of the second period.
Tkachuk, captain of the USA and the Ottawa Senators, made it 2-0 with 42 seconds left in the game in a 2-1 gap. Murray made the initial stop on Shane Pinto, and the puck got stuck in Tkachuk’s skate and came in when the attacker was pushed from behind and hit the net.
The Americans close out the preliminary round by facing Kazakhstan on Sunday and Latvia on Tuesday.
In the Group A game, Dominik Kubalik and Jakub Flek scored second-period goals 64 seconds apart, and the Czech Republic defeated Austria 4-0. Petr Mrazek, who plays goalie for the Chicago Blackhawks, scored the goal with 21 saves, and the host Czechs improved to 3-1-1 and took first place in their group.
Austria fell to 1-3-1.
Earlier in the day, JJ Peterka had a goal and three assists, Wojciech Stachowiak scored four goals and Germany secured a place in the Group B playoffs with an 8-2 rout of Kazakhstan.
Philipp Grubauer, who plays for the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, stopped 18 shots. Peterka, a member of the Buffalo Sabres, scored the winning goal to put the Germans ahead 3-1 at 1:11 of the second period.
Roman Starchenko and Artyom Korolyov scored for Kazakhstan, who are in danger of relegation after falling to 1-4. Andrey Shutov allowed three goals on 10 shots before being replaced by Nikita Boyarkin, who stopped 20 of 25 shots.
In the preliminary round of Group A, Christian Wejse scored the decisive goal with 7:59 remaining in regulation in Denmark’s 4-3 victory over winless Great Britain.
Mikkel Aagaard scored twice and Phillip Bruggisser had a goal and an assist for the Danes, who snapped a three-game skid to improve to 2-3. Frederik Dichow made 28 saves in the win.
Liam Kirk, Cade Neilson and Nathanael Halbert scored for Great Britain, who fell to 0-4. Jackson Whistle finished with 24 saves for a team that has been competitive despite its record, and opened the world cup with a 4-2 loss to Canada.
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