VICTORIA — Joel Farabee scored a first-period natural hat trick as the U.S. pummelled Kazakhstan 8-2 at the world junior hockey championship Friday.
Josh Norris, Tyler Madden, Ryan Poehling, Oliver Wahlstrom and Alexander Chmelevski rounded out the scoring for the U.S. (2-0), which is level with Sweden for first place in Group B with six points each.
Jason Robertson also had four assists for the Americans, who were without the services of Jack Hughes, the projected top pick in next year's NHL entry draft. The team said Hughes is day to day and was scratched for precautionary reasons.
Dmitri Mitenkov and Andrei Buyalski got Kazakhstan (0-2) on the board.
U.S. goalie Cayden Primeau made 11 saves in the victory. Kazakhstan's Vladislav Nurek and Demid Yeremeyev combined for 58 saves in the loss.
The Americans went 2 for 6 on the power play. The Kazakhs were scoreless in five chances with the man advantage.
The U.S. will face fellow Group-B powerhouse Sweden on Saturday. Kazakhstan is slated to taken on Slovakia on Sunday.
Earlier Friday, Artyom Galimov and Nikolai Kovalenko both scored shorthanded goals as Russia held on for a 2-1 victory over the Czech Republic at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
Jachym Kondelik scored the lone goal for the Czechs (1-1).
Galimov opened the scoring for Russia (2-0), finding the back of the net at 17:05 of the first period after his teammate Alexander Alexeyev took a two-minute penalty for hooking.
Kovalenko capitalized on another shorthanded chance with five minutes remaining in the second period while killing a holding penalty by Ivan Muranov.
Kondelik cut the deficit to one with a goal 47 seconds later, but Czechs couldn't to complete the comeback.
Lukas Dostal made 26 saves in a losing effort for the Czech Republic. Russia's Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 24 shots for the win.
Russia sits tied atop Group A with Canada at six points apiece.
The Czech Republic is slated to face Canada on Saturday. Russia has a day off before taking on Switzerland on Sunday.
The Canadian Press
