Owen Power led Canada to a 6-3 victory over the Czech Republic in his first preliminary round of the IIHF World Championship.
With his third goal in the second half, Power became the first defender to record a hat-trick for Canada at the Junior World Cup.
Mason McTavish, Sebrango Donovan and Olen Zellweger also found the net for Canada.
McTavish has opened the mark four minutes before the end of the first half Michal Gut creates the equality of the Czech republic a 2-on-1. The goal of Gut was confirmed when the video room buzzed after he was not initially given on the ice.
The Czech Republic scored the first numerical advantage of the match and Pavel Novak took advantage of this with an extra time to give the Czechs a 2-1 lead.
Stanislav Svozil scored 51 seconds after to give the Czechs a 3-1 lead.
It took just 23 seconds for Power to react with his first goal at the World Junior Championships to put Canada on a 3-2 point.
Canadian defender Donovan Sebrango made it 3-3 with 30 seconds left in the first half.
In the second period, McTavish took advantage of Canada’s first numerical advantage, while Jakub Sedivy from the Czech Republic went to the marble to keep.
While Canada was still in numerical superiority, Czech captain Jan Mysak (Trigger) and Michal Hradek (Cross failure) conceded penalties to give the Canadiens a 5-3 extra time.
Power netted his second with a 5-3 time to give Canada a 4-3 lead, with Cole Perfetti reaping his second assist from the contest.
Canada got back to 5-3 for more than a minute and Power finished the round of the hat to earn a 5-3 lead.
Perfetti finished the game with three assists, with Dylan Garand stopping 14 of the 17 shots he faced to clinch the win.
Connor Bédard, 16 years old, the youngest player of the tournament this year, collected his first point at the Junior World Cup with the help of Sebrango’s equalizer goal in the first.
Czech defender David Jiricek, a leading hope for NHL Draft in, left the game in the second period after a collision with Canadian forward Will Cuylle. He left his left leg and did not come back.
Jakub Malek stopped 31 of the 37 shots on him for the Czech Republic.
Power received the title of player for Canada, and Svozil deserved the honor for the Czechs.
