2015-16 National Men's Under-18 Team

KYROU SCORES FOUR, CANADA ROUTS DANES TO OPEN U18 WORLDS

JASON LA ROSE

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Jordan Kyrou (Toronto, Ont./Sarnia, OHL) tied a tournament record with four goals, leading Canada’s National Men’s Under-18 Team to a 10-2 win over Denmark in its opening game Friday at the 2016 IIHF U18 World Championship.

Kyrou became the eighth player – and first Canadian – to record four goals in one game; the last to do it was U.S. defenceman Erik Johnson, who scored four times against Belarus on April 17, 2006.

Canadian captain Tyson Jost (Kelowna, B.C./Penticton, BCHL) had two goals and three assists, Will Bitten (Ottawa, Ont./Flint, OHL) added a goal and two helpers, Dante Fabbro (Port Coquitlam, B.C./Penticton, BCHL) had three assists, and 14 of the 16 Canadian skaters recorded at least one point in the win.

Canada came out firing, taking a very early two-goal lead; Kyrou tipped in a Logan Stanley (Waterloo, Ont./Windsor, OHL) point shot just 65 seconds in, and Beck Malenstyn (Delta, B.C./Calgary, WHL) doubled the advantage just 26 seconds after that.

But the Danes battled right back, with goals 43 seconds apart from Jacob Schmidt-Svejstrup and Joachim Blichfeldt tying the game before the seven-minute mark of the opening period.

The Canadians controlled the puck after that, holding a 21-5 advantage in shots on goal in the first period.

The game was delayed more than 70 minutes when the power went out during the first intermission, but when Ralph Engelstad Arena came back to life so did the Canadian offence.

Kyrou needed just 27 seconds of the period to rifle a wrist shot past Danish netminder Mads-Emil Gransoe, starting a run of five Canadian goals in less than 14 minutes.

Maxime Comtois (Longueuil, Que./Victoriaville, QMJHL) made it 4-2 at 6:30, banking a centering pass in off a Danish defender, Mason Shaw (Wainwright, Alta./Medicine Hat, WHL) redirected a feed from Jakob Chychrun (Toronto, Ont./Sarnia, OHL) on the power play at 7:21, and Bitten knocked in a loose puck on another man advantage at 7:55, putting Canada in complete control.

Kyrou finished his hat trick at 14:13 (although his first goal wasn’t credited to him until the second intermission), sending Canada to the dressing room with a commanding 7-2 lead.

He got his record-tying fourth goal early in the third period, stuffing in a pass from Jost, and the captain added his two goals in the final 10 minutes to cap the scoring.

Canada gets right back to action Saturday night (8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT), taking on the Czech Republic in the second of four preliminary-round games on Group B.