Boston College’s Cutter Gauthier nets hat trick to lead United States men’s hockey in rout of France at world championships

Drew O'Connor bore down on France goalie Quentin Papillon to score one of his two goals in the United States's win in Group A.Pavel Golovkin/Associated Press

TAMPERE, Finland — The United States routed France, 9-0, to keep its perfect record at the men’s hockey world championship on Sunday.

Boston College forward Cutter Gauthier led with a hat trick, Drew O’Connor got two goals, and Scott Perunovich, T. J. Tynan, Rocco Grimaldi, and Conor Garland added one apiece at Nokia Arena for the Americans to dominate Group A with six wins in six games. For the second game in a row, Gauthier was named the US player of the game.

Goaltender Cal Petersen made 13 saves for the shutout.

🖐️ holeee @GauthierCutter | #MensWorlds pic.twitter.com/1LIOF69te3

— USA Hockey (@usahockey) May 21, 2023

Nico Sturm scored twice and Germany thrashed Hungary, 7-2, to keep alive its hopes of advancing to the quarterfinals from Group A.

In the Latvian capital of Riga, Switzerland beat the Czech Republic, 4-2, to lead Group B with six victories in six games.

Andres Ambuhl scored two goals for Switzerland, Tanner Richard and Romain Loeffel contributed one each while Roman Cervenka and Dominik Kubalik scored for the Czechs.

Slovakia edged Slovenia, 1-0, in Group B to stay in contention for a place in the knockout stage. Slovenia lost six straight games and will be relegated from the top division.