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HERNING, Denmark — The United States blanked Denmark 5-0 on the opening day of the ice hockey world championship on Friday.

Matty Beniers led the Americans with two goals, Cutter Gauthier and Mason Lohrei had a goal and an assist each, and Logan Cooley also scored in a Group B game.

Michael Kesselring had two assists and goaltender Joey Daccord recorded 26 saves in the shutout.

“Any time a goalie gets a shutout is a team result,” Daccord said after his debut at the worlds.

Gauthier opened the scoring from the slot with 2:08 left in the opening period. Cooley doubled the advantage on a power play, Beniers added on a rebound in the middle period and Lohrei made it 4-0 from the point midway through the final period. Beniers one-timed a slap shot for his second with 3:44 remaining.

Sweden delights home crowd

Sweden shut out Slovakia 5-0 to delight the home crowd in Stockholm in Group A.

Mikael Backlund, Leo Carlsson and Jonas Brodin scored 8:37 apart in the second part of the opening period to give Sweden a commanding 3-0 lead.

Elias Lindholm stretched it to 4-0 in the second and Mika Zibanejad finished it off in the final period.

Backlund and Lindholm added an assist each.

Sweden won the championship when it took place in Stockholm last time in 2013.

Czechs prevail in OT

Defending champion Czech Republic earlier prevailed in overtime to beat Switzerland 5-4 in a rematch of last year’s final.

Roman Cervenka scored the winner 2:30 into overtime from the left circle after David Pastrnak fed him with his second assist in Herning.

Czech Lukas Sedlak tied the game at 4 on a rebound on a power play with 3:47 left to force overtime.

Matej Stransky, Filip Zadina and Filip Pyrochta also scored for the Czechs, who beat the Swiss 2-0 in the final last year in Prague.

Christian Marti, Damien Riat, Sandro Schmid and Sven Andrighetto scored for Switzerland.

In Stockholm, Finland topped Austria 2-1.

The tournament is the final men’s international test before the 2026 Winter Games in Italy, where NHL players will return to the Olympics after 12 years.

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Ohtani’s blast caps 6-run 9th in wild Dodgers rally

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Ohtani's blast caps 6-run 9th in wild Dodgers rally

PHOENIX — Shohei Ohtani hit a three-run homer to cap a six-run ninth inning and the Los Angeles Dodgers rallied for a wild 14-11 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night.

The Dodgers trailed 11-8 entering the ninth inning after blowing an early five-run lead.

Andy Pages and Enrique Hernandez hit consecutive run-scoring doubles to open the ninth inning against Kevin Ginkel (0-1). Max Muncy tied it at 11-11 with a run-scoring single and Ryan Thompson replaced Ginkel to face Ohtani.

It didn’t go well for Arizona.

Ohtani, who doubled twice, fell into a 1-2 hole before launching his 12th homer near the pool deck in right to put the Dodgers up 14-11. He finished with four RBIs.

Tanner Scott worked a perfect ninth save in 11 chances.

The Dodgers roughed up Eduardo Rodriguez to take an 8-3 lead through three innings, but couldn’t hold it.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit a tying grand slam in the fifth inning, then Ketel Marte and Randal Grichuk hit solo shots off Alex Vesia (1-0) in the eighth to put Arizona up 11-8.

Pages finished with three RBIs and Hernández extended the Dodgers’ homer streak to 13 straight games with a solo shot in the second inning.

Marte homered twice for the Diamondbacks. Rodriguez allowed eight runs on nine hits in 2⅔ innings.

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Marchand’s OT score cuts Panthers’ deficit to 2-1

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Marchand's OT score cuts Panthers' deficit to 2-1

SUNRISE, Fla. — Brad Marchand scored on a deflected shot at 15:27 of overtime and the Florida Panthers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Friday night to cut their deficit in the Eastern Conference semifinal series to 2-1.

Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe and Jonah Gadjovich scored for Florida, which got 27 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky. Evan Rodrigues had two assists for the Panthers. They 13-2 in their last 15 playoff overtime games.

John Tavares scored twice, and Matthew Knies and Morgan Rielly also scored for the Maple Leafs. Joseph Woll stopped 32 shots.

Game 4 will be in Sunrise on Sunday night.

Florida erased deficits of 2-0 and 3-1, and that’s been almost impossible to do against Toronto this season.

By the numbers, it was all looking good for the Maple Leafs.

  • They were 30-3-0 when leading after the first period, including playoffs, the second-best record in the league.

  • They were 38-8-2, the league’s third-best record when scoring first.

  • They had blown only 11 leads all season, none in the playoffs.

  • They were 44-3-1 in games where they led by two goals or more.

Combine all that with Toronto having won all 11 of its previous best-of-seven series when taking a 2-0 lead at home, Florida being 0-5 in series where it dropped both Games 1 and 2, and leaguewide, teams facing 0-2 deficits come back to win those series only about 14% of the time.

But Marchand — a longtime Toronto playoff nemesis from his days in Boston — got the biggest goal of Florida’s season, rendering all those numbers moot for now.

The Leafs got two goals that deflected in off of Panthers defensemen: Tavares’ second goal nicked the glove of Gustav Forsling on its way past Bobrovsky for a 3-1 lead, and Rielly’s goal redirected off Seth Jones’ leg to tie it with 9:04 left in the third.

Knies scored 23 seconds into the game, the second time Toronto had a 1-0 lead in the first minute of this series. Tavares made it 2-0 at 5:57 and just like that, the Panthers were in trouble.

A diving Barkov threw the puck at the night and saw it carom in off a Toronto stick to get Florida on the board — only for Tavares to score again early in the second for a 3-1 Leafs lead.

Florida needed a break. It came.

Reinhart was credited with a goal after Woll thought he covered up the puck following a scrum in front of the net. But after review, it was determined the puck had crossed the line. Florida had life, the building was loud again and about a minute later, Verhaeghe tied it at 3-3.

Gadjovich made it 4-3 late in the second, before Rielly tied it midway through the third.

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Vegas’ Roy dodges suspension for G2 cross-check

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Vegas' Roy dodges suspension for G2 cross-check

NEW YORK — Vegas Golden Knights forward Nicolas Roy was fined but not suspended Friday for cross-checking the Edmonton OilersTrent Frederic in the face in overtime of Game 2 of the teams’ second-round playoff series.

The NHL Department of Player Safety announced the fine of $7,813, the maximum allowed under the collective bargaining agreement, after a disciplinary hearing with him.

Roy attempted to play the puck while it was airborne but made contact with Frederic’s head instead, resulting in a laceration for the Oilers forward.

Frederic briefly exited the game before making a quick return to the ice. Edmonton, however, failed to capitalize on the ensuing five-minute power play but won not long after on a goal by Leon Draisaitl from Connor McDavid.

Vegas trails the best-of-seven series 2-0 with Game 3 on Saturday night at Edmonton.

Information from The Associated Press and Field Level Media was used in this report.

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