Prince Albert’s Braden Schneider helped get Canada rolling on Sunday at the IIHF World Hockey Championship in Riga, Latvia.
The New York Rangers prospect fired a shot from the point that Winnipeg Jets prospect Cole Perfetti would tip on goal and eventually put into the net just 2:33 into the first period as Canada would cruise to a 7-1 win over Italy in Group B play.
Canada’s top line did the majority of the damage on offence as Andrew Mangiapane (Calgary Flames) had two goals and two assists each, Connor Brown (Ottawa Senators) dished out four helpers and Adam Henrique (Anaheim Ducks) lit the lamp once and picked up two assists.
Maxime Comtois (Anaheim Ducks), Troy Stecher (Detroit Red Wings) and Brandon Pirri (Chicago Blackhawks) also scored in the contest, which saw Adin Hill (Arizona Coyotes) make 13 saves.
In addition to recording his first point at the tournament, Schneider also took to the ice in all three periods after playing sparingly during the round-robin.
Former Victoriaville Tigres forward Angelo Miceli had the lone goal for Italy, who reside at the bottom of the Group B standings with an 0-6 mark.
Justin Fazio, who played in the OHL for the Sarnia Sting, was pulled after allowing four goals on 11 shots in the opening 12 minutes.
Davide Fadani finished out the contest and made 35 stops in a relief role.
With Sunday’s win, Canada improved their record to 3-3 and are tied for the fourth and final playoff spot in Group B with Germany and Latvia on nine points.
Their final round-robin contest is set for 3 a.m. Tuesday against Finland, where a win will keep their hopes of making the quarter-finals alive ahead of a head-to-head contest against Germany and Latvia later that day.
