PRAGUE — Captain Brady Tkachuk scored three power-play goals and added an assist to help the United States rout Kazakhstan 10-1 at the ice hockey world championship on Sunday.
Their fourth victory lifted the Americans to second place in Group B with 13 points, one ahead of Germany with a game against Latvia on Tuesday to play in the preliminary round.
Johnny Gaudreau had a goal and four assists to become the United States record scorer with 43 points, one more than Patrick Kane.
Matt Boldy scored twice and had four assists, Brock Nelson and Luke Kunin both had a goal and an assist, and Gavin Brindley and Kevin Hayes also scored.
Alex Nedeljkovic made 13 saves.
In a four-goal opening period, Tkatchuk tipped in a shot by Zach Werenski on a power play to increase the U.S. lead to 2-0, and buried a rebound to make it 4-0 on a power play.
He completed his hat trick to increase the advantage to 8-0 with a one-timed shot from the right circle on another power play in the final period.
Alikhan Omirbekov scored the consolation goal for Kazakhstan when his team was 9-0 down.
In Group A, Austria beat Norway 4-1 and is tied for fourth place with Finland.
The top four from each group advance to the playoff round.
Later on Sunday, Canada plays Switzerland in a clash for the lead in Group A between two teams that already qualified for the playoffs while Slovakia faces Latvia in Group B.
