Riga (AP) – Canada’s youth ice hockey team can still hope to make it to the quarter-finals at the World Cup in Latvia, thanks to a sovereign compulsory victory.

The uncompetitive and still pointless Italy humiliated the Canadians in Riga with a 7: 1 (4: 0, 2: 1, 1: 0). The North Americans laid the foundation with four goals in the first third. Andrew Mangiapen of the NHL team Calgary Flames was successful once in the first and second section.

After a historically weak start to the World Cup with three consecutive defeats, the 26-time world champion scored a third victory and currently has the same number of points as Germany (9). In any case, Canadians need to continue scoring for possible progress. At the end of the preliminary round in Group B on Tuesday, the top nation have a difficult task against defending champions Finland.

In Group A, the Swiss may plan a rapid knockout round. The Swiss celebrated their fourth win against Belarus in the preliminary round with 6: 0 (2: 0, 2: 0, 2: 0).

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