Canada Routs U.S. Hockey Team; 3rd Straight Loss

Steve Yzerman, playing his first game of the tournament, scored three goals today as Canada downed the United States 8-2 to hand the Americans their third straight loss in the World Hockey Championships.

The Americans earlier dropped a pair of 4-2 decisions to the Soviet Union and defending world champion Sweden.

“Canada was the toughest team on us to date,” said U.S. Coach Tim Taylor of Yale. “They put much more pressure in our end than the Soviets and the Swedes.

“We expected that and had prepared for it through our game plan that we would be facing an awful lot of strength, speed and power deep in our end. But quite frankly, we were out-manned all day.”

Yzerman, the high-scoring captain of the Detroit Red Wings, was one of the late additions to Team Canada, which is 3-0 in the tournament.

‘Very Impressive’

He had arrived in Sweden on Monday, and it took him just 3:34 to score his first goal. Yzerman added a second tally at 10:16 in the third, firing a slap shot from the right circle past goalie John Vanbiesbrouck. He completed his hat trick with 2:30 left.

“It was very impressive for a guy who just stepped off the plane,” said Canadian Assistant Coach Dan Maloney.

The Red Wings were eliminated by the Chicago Blackhawks in the NHL’s Norris Division semifinals last week.

But it was Brian Bellows and John McLean who spoiled any U.S. hopes of staying in the game. They scored within 29 seconds early in the second period, putting Canada ahead 4-2.

Bellows broke a 2-2 tie with his first of two goals, whipping the puck past Vanbiesbrouck just 38 seconds into the period after a perfect feed from Kirk Muller from behind the cage. McLean then tapped in a rebound at 1:07 after a blue-line shot by defenseman Randy Carlyle.

Other Canada scorers were Kirk Muller, who tied the game 2-2 midway through the first period, and James Patrick.

Corey Millen and Brian Mullen scored for Team USA.

25-6 in Series

Only four penalties were called in a game watched by a near capacity crowd of 12,800 at Stockholm’s new Globe Arena.

Canada now has outscored its three first opponents 25-6, beating Finland 6-4 and Group A newcomer Poland 11-0 in the earlier games.

In another game today, Viacheslav Bykov and Vladimir Konstantinov each scored two goals, leading the Soviet Union to a 4-1 win over Finland.

The victory, which avenged a 2-1 loss to Finland in the Olympics last year, gave the Soviets a perfect 3-0 record along with Canada in the tournament’s single round-robin portion.

Czechoslovakia moved to five points, one point behind the leaders, by trouncing winless Group A newcomer Poland 15-0 in Stockholm’s Globe Arena.