SUNDAY AT THE WORLD JUNIORS: CANADA MOVES TO 2-0

EDMONTON – Jordan Spence scored what turned out to be an important goal for Canada in his first shift of the world junior hockey championship.

A day after Canada romped 16-2 over short-staffed Germany to start the tournament, goals were much harder to come by in a 3-1 win over Slovakia on Sunday.

Spence was a healthy scratch in Canada’s opener. The defenceman was informed Sunday afternoon he would draw into the lineup for suspended teammate Braden Schneider.

Spence scored the host country’s only goal in the first 36 minutes of the game.

“It was great for me to score, but it’s good that it created for momentum for our team, which it did,” Spence said.

Philip Tomasino had a goal and an assist and Jack Quinn scored an empty-netter for Canada. Devon Levi made 17 saves for the win on his 19th birthday.

“I didn’t go on my phone much. I was focused on the game,” Levi said. “I can answer my birthday messages later, but the task at hand was to win the game.”

Martin Romiak scored for Slovakia (1-1). Goaltender Samuel Hlavaj of the QMJHL’s Sherbrooke Phoenix stopped 20 shots in the loss.

Canada has Monday off before facing Switzerland (0-2) in Pool A on Tuesday. Finland (2-0) beat the Swiss 4-1 earlier Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Czech Repubic (1-1) bounced back from a 7-1 loss against Sweden (1-0) to upset Russia (1-1) in Sunday’s late game — creating some chaos in the Pool B standings with four teams now with a victory each, including the Americans (1-1-0).

FINLAND 4 SWITZERLAND 1

Finland defeated Switzerland 4-1 in preliminary-round play Sunday afternoon at the world junior hockey championship.

Switzerland’s Attilio Biasca opened the scoring at 3:44. Anton Lundell pulled Finland even less than a minute later at 4:20.

Juuso Parssinen gave Finland the lead at 4:53 of the second period. Aku Raty scored an insurance goal at 10:41 of the third and Kasper Simontaival added another at 16:49.

Finland outshot Switzerland 43-14.

Finland opened the tournament Christmas Day with a 5-3 win over Germany. Switzerland dropped a 1-0 decision to Slovakia in its first game.

CZECH REPUBLIC 2 RUSSIA 0

Lukas Parik stopped 30 shots, and the Czech Repubic (1-1-0) bounced back from a 7-1 loss against Sweden (1-0-0) to upset Russia (1-1-0) — creating some chaos in the Group B standings with four teams now with a victory each, including the Americans (1-1-0).

(Canadian Press/Photo: Hockey Canada)