HERNING, Denmark — Tyson Jost scored twice and Curtis McElhinney stopped 25 shots for the shutout as Canada routed South Korea 10-0 on Sunday in Group B action at the men’s world hockey championship.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Colton Parayko, Ryan O’Reilly, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Brayden Schenn, Joel Edmundson, Connor McDavid and Jordan Eberle also scored as Canada earned its first win of the tournament.
McElhinney made his first start in net after Darcy Kuemper was charged with the loss in Canada’s 5-4 shootout defeat at the hands of the United States on Friday.
Coached by former NHL defenceman Jim Paek, South Korea is participating in top-level world championship action for the first time in history after earning promotion with a second-place finish at the 2017 IIHF Division 1A tournament. Icing a nearly identical lineup to the group that participated in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in February, the Koreans opened their tournament with an 8-1 loss to Finland.
South Korea managed just nine shots on goal against Finland on Saturday, but matched that in the first period against Canada. McElhinney looked sharp early, staring down several quality scoring chances as the Koreans tried to keep pace with a Canadian team that has earned one silver and two gold medals in its past three world championship appearances.
Canada took a 2-0 lead into the dressing room after 20 minutes off goals from Nugent-Hopkins and Jost, then quickly took control on the power play early in the second. Parayko scored his second of the tournament on a 5-on-3 opportunity at the 1:07 mark of the second period, quickly followed by O’Reilly’s second of the tournament to make it 4-0 just 50 seconds later.
Back at even strength, Dubois made it 5-0 with his second of the tournament at the 2:32 mark of the second, prompting a time out by South Korea as Paek tried to settle down his overmatched squad, which was cheered on by a small but vocal group of fans at Jsyke Bank Boxen arena.
After hitting the post on a power play in the first period, Schenn scored his first goal of the tournament at 7:33, giving Canada a 6-0 lead. Late in the second, Jost scored his second of the game 18 seconds before Edmundson added his first of the tournament to make the score 8-0.
Goaltender Matt Dalton, who has been playing for the Korean national team since 2015, endured a very challenging set of back-to-back games. After facing 45 shots from Finland on Saturday, the 31-year-old native of Kitchener, Ont., was pulled in favour of Sungje Park with 3:18 left to play in the second period after giving up eight goals on 40 Canada shots.
Park stopped eight of 10 shots he faced in 23:18 of game action. McDavid scored his first of the tournament to make it 9-0 at 4:40 of the third before Eberle tallied his first to bump the score into double digits at 8:55.
Four Canadian players had three point games — McDavid, with a goal and two assists, and three rookies. Jost added a third-period assist to his two goals, Dubois had a goal and two assists and Mat Barzal had three assists.
In later games on Sunday in Herning, Germany and Norway will battle each other for their first win of the tournament before unbeaten Latvia and Finland face off.
In Group A action in Copenhagen, Russia routed Austria 7-0 before the defending world champions from Sweden meet the Czech Republic and Slovakia takes on Switzerland.
Canada’s next game is Monday at 2:15 p.m. ET against host Denmark (1-0-0-1).