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Cozens hat trick leads Canada to 6-3 win over Kazakhstan at world championship

HELSINKI — Dylan Cozens scored three times, including two power-play goals that put the game out of reach, as Canada posted a 6-3 win over Kazakhstan in a penalty-filled game Thursday at the world hockey championship.
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Dylan Cozens, centre, of Canada, celebrates his goal with teammates during the group A Hockey World Championship match against Kazakhstan in Helsinki, Finland, Thursday May 19 2022. Cozens scored three times, including two power-play goals that put the game out of reach, as Canada posted a 6-3 win over Kazakhstan in a penalty-filled game Thursday at the world hockey championship. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Martin Meissner

HELSINKI — Dylan Cozens scored three times, including two power-play goals that put the game out of reach, as Canada posted a 6-3 win over Kazakhstan in a penalty-filled game Thursday at the world hockey championship.

Damon Severson had the winning goal and two assists for Canada, which improved to 4-0 and set up a showdown with Switzerland (4-0) on Saturday for sole possession of first place in Group A.

Drake Batherson had a goal and an assist and Adam Lowry had a power-play goal. Ryan Graves and Kent Johnson chipped in with two assists apiece.

"A few of the goals I just happened to get myself in a good position or my teammates were able to make good plays to get me the puck," Cozens said in a statement. "It is always good to be able to contribute offensively, and I am glad I was able to do my part tonight.

"Right now, we are getting a lot of different guys scoring and helping out at both ends of the ice, and that is why we have been able to find success early in this tournament."

Yegor Petukhov, Arkadi Shestakov and Kirill Savitski scored for Kazakhstan (0-4), which led twice in the first period and gave the defending champions a scare before getting into penalty trouble late in the game.

Canada was 3-for-6 on the power play, while Kazakhstan was 1-for-6.

Logan Thompson made 16 saves for Canada. Andrei Shutov stopped 31 shots for Kazakhstan.

The start of the game was delayed by 40 minutes due to a fire at Helsinki Ice Hall before Thursday's earlier game between Germany and Denmark.

"We know there are not going to be any easy games in this tournament, and we expected a tough test from Kazakhstan tonight." said Canada head coach Claude Julien in a statement. "Obviously, it was a unique night with the delayed puck drop and a later game, but that is something out of our control.

"At the end of the day, I think of guys responded well to the situation, especially when we found ourselves trailing early on and we were able to battle back through a bit of adversity."

Kazakhstan opened the scoring 2:25 into the first period when Petukhov's wrist shot bounced off a couple of Canadian players and past Thompson.

Cozens tied the game 80 second later when he picked up the rebound of a Graves shot and tucked it past Shutov.

Kazakhstan went back in front on Shestakov's power-play goal at 12:16 of the period. The goal came on Kazakhstan's third power play of the game.

Batherson brought Canada level again, and Lowry's power-play goal from the right faceoff circle late in the period gave the Canadians their first lead of the game.

Severson scored the only goal of the second period to put Canada up 4-2, but Kazakhstan kept pressure on the defending champions when Savitski scored 7:55 into the third.

That's as close as the Kazakhs would get, as Cozens made them pay for late undisciplined play, completing his hat trick with late power-play goals.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 19, 2022.

The Canadian Press