USA Beats Denmark 11-3

Denver Post
NHL.com

After a tight 1st period against Denmark Monday night, Team USA came back and demolished Denmark 11-3 to capture their first win of the World Juniors. The first line consisting of Coyle, Zucker and Saad combined for 5 goals in the game. Kyle Rau also had two and 14 players at least got a point. Goalie Jack Campbell also had 20 saves for team USA.

My thoughts... It was a quick start for team USA scoring around the 40 second mark of the opening period. However, Denmark did try their best to make it a game. They capitalized on every single one of their Power Plays and it wasn't till the 2nd period when the dam broke and Denmark collapsed. They say that the early period goals set the tone... well it did and the USA never looked back. Though it was the first game some faults showed and I don't really worry about most of them. However the pack of aggressive play on the Penalty Kill put up a ton of red flags for me. Players stood around, no one cleared goalie's sights and Denmark for a team with not much offensive talent played simple hockey and made it look easy. There better be some major improvements there.

Team USA will face Finland next who got beat 8-1 to Canada. I'm expecting a much stronger effort on Finland's part this Wed. and they have given the US problems in the past.