Edmonton Oilers forward Taylor Hall scored a hat-trick as Canada trashed Germany 10-0 at the ice hockey world championships on Sunday to go top of Group A with a perfect record.

Seeking their first medal from the tournament since 2009, the Olympic winners from 2010 and 2014 converted ten of their 34 shots on the German goal.

Colorado forward Matt Duchene had a goal and three assists while Dallas forward Cody Eakin scored twice to help Canada to the second win from two games, with an impressive score of 16 goals for and one against.

Los Angeles Kings goalie Martin Jones had an easy job stopping 17 shots for the first shut-out of the tournament.

Nashville Predators forward Filip Forsberg scored three goals and added an assist to lead Sweden to a 6-1 win over underdogs Austria that saw his team move to second spot in Group A behind Canada.

Sweden were 6-0 up in the 32nd minute when the 20-year-old Forsberg completed his hat-trick. Austria scored their consolation goal six minutes before the end.

Sweden had 41 shots on goal, against 17 for their rivals.

In Group B, defending champions Russia beat Slovenia 5-3 in Sunday's first game.

Former NHL player Ilya Kovalchuk and New York Islanders forward Nikolay Kulemin put Russia 2-0 ahead with two goals within 36 seconds of the 5th minute.

Evgeni Dadonov of Russian Continental Hockey League side St Petersburg had two goals and two assists as Russia never let Slovenia narrow their lead to less than two goals, outshooting their rivals 35-25.

In the second Group B game of the day, Slovakia beat Belarus 2-1 in overtime.

Slovak goalie Jan Laco and his Belarusian counterpart Kevin Lalande, born in Canada, kept a clean sheet until the 52nd minute when Belarus scored through Sergei Kostitsyn.

But Buffalo Sabres defenceman Andrej Meszaros put Slovakia level in just over a minute and then scored in overtime to hand Slovakia a second two-point victory from two games after a penalty shoot-out win against Denmark on Saturday.
Source: AFP