US beats Canada 4-1 to finish first in its group at world junior championship

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Danny Nelson scored the eventual game-winner in the third period and Trey Augustine made 38 saves, leading the United States to a 4-1 win over Canada on Tuesday night and into the top spot in Group A at the world junior hockey championship.

Cole Hutson and Cole Eiserman each had a goal and an assist for the Americans. Ryan Leonard scored into an empty-net.

Bradly Nadeau scored for Canada, which allowed three goals on seven American power plays. Carter George stopped 24 shots.

Canada finished third in the pool and will face Czechia in Thursday’s quarterfinals. The Americans face Switzerland.

“We’re not here to beat Canada tonight,” Augustine said. “We’re here to win a gold medal.”

The other matchups will have Group B winner Sweden take on Latvia, and Finland square off with Slovakia.

Canada and the U.S. played in the same building exactly 16 years to the day at the 2009 event, when John Tavares scored a memorable hat trick in Canada's 7-4 comeback victory on New Year’s Eve. The Canadians went on to win a fifth straight gold.

“That’s something that’s storybook-like,” Eiserman said of beating Canada on home soil in the tournament’s marquee round-robin matchup. “Something that you’ve dreamt of.”

The teams met on New Year’s Eve for the first time since Dec. 31, 2016, when Canada picked up a 3-1 victory in Toronto. The U.S. got revenge less than a week later with a 5-4 shootout win in the title game in Montreal.

The Americans opened this under-20 tournament with a 10-4 win over Germany followed by a 5-1 victory over Latvia before losing to Finland 4-3 in overtime. Canada started with a 4-0 defeat of Finland before falling to Latvia 3-2 in a shootout and then rebounding to beat Germany 3-0.

The Canadians had a power play to start the third period while trailing 1-0 after Leonard took a roughing call at the end of the second. Nadeau blasted a one-timer for his first goal of the tournament off a feed from Brayden Yager at 1:58.

Nelson restored the U.S. lead at 4:22, taking a pass from Huston and beating George with his third goal.

The U.S. scored its third power-play goal of the game at 13:21 when Eiserman scored his second and put the game out of reach at 3-1 after a boarding penalty by Canada’s Easton Cowan.

Leonard scored into the empty net with 1:52 left in regulation to spark chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!”

George, who entered with consecutive shutouts that bookended the Latvia loss, saw his streak end at 133:02 on Tuesday’s first power play to silence the beer-chugging crowd at Canadian Tire Centre.

In the first period, Hutson took advantage of a failed Canadian clearing attempt on a U.S. power play and scored his second goal of the tournament.

Tempers flared later in the period when Canada’s Luca Pinelli and Zeev Buium of the U.S. went off for roughing and then jawed at each other in the penalty box.

Leonard hit another post for the Americans and Carson Rehkopf fired an effort that Augustine, who entered with an .879 save percentage in two starts, got enough of with his glove at the other end before tempers again boiled over at the buzzer.

In another Group A game, Finland beat Latvia 3-0 and finished second in the group.

Benjamin Rautiainen had a goal and an assist and Petteri Rimpenen earned the shutout for Finland, which finished with eight points.

Latvia finished fourth in the group and will face Sweden in Thursday’s quarterfinals.

Jesse Kiiskinen and Kasper Halttunen also scored for Finland.

In Group B, Switzerland beat Kazakhstan 3-1 to secure a spot in the quarterfinal round.

Simon Meier and Ludvig Johnson each had a goal and an assist and Robin Antenen also scored for the Swiss, who entered without a point in three earlier games but moved past Kazakhstan into fourth spot in the group.

Kirill Lyapunov scored for Kazakhstan, which came in as fourth in the group after earning a point in a 5-4 overtime loss to Slovakia on Monday.

Kazakhstan faces Germany in a relegation game, with the loser demoted to the Division I Group A tournament for 2026.

In another Group B game, Sweden completed a sweep of its four preliminary round games, beating Czechia 4-2.

Herman Traff scored twice and Anton Wahlberg and Felix Unger Sorum also scored for Sweden.

Petr Sikora and Eduard Sale scored for Czechia, which finished second in the group with three wins and a loss.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

United States' Ryan Leonard (9) scores an empty-net goal over Canada's Calum Ritchie, bottom left, during third-period IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship tournament game action in Ottawa, Ontario, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

United States' Carey Terrance (10) shout to the Canada bench during third-period IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship tournament game action in Ottawa, Ontario, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

United States' Brandon Svoboda (8) and Canada's Tanner Molendyk (6) battle for the puck during the third period of an IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship tournament game in Ottawa, Ontario on Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

United States' Cole Eiserman (91) celebrates after his goal against Canada with Zeev Buium, second from left, during third-period IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship tournament game action in Ottawa, Ontario, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada's Luca Pinelli (13) shoots against United States goaltender Trey Augustine (1) as United States' Aram Minnetian (14) defends during second-period IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship tournament game action in Ottawa, Ontario, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada goaltender Carter George (30) makes a save as United States' Brandon Svoboda (8) stumbles and Canada's Andrew Gibson (2) defends during the first period of an IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship tournament game in Ottawa, Ontario on Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada's Andrew Gibson (2) blocks a shot from United States' Cole Hutson (24) during the first period of an IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship tournament game in Ottawa, Ontario on Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

United States goaltender Trey Augustine (1) makes a save against Canada's Gavin McKenna (9) as United States' Drew Fortescue (5) defends during third-period IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship tournament game action in Ottawa, Ontario, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

United States' Ryan Leonard (9) shoots against Canada during the third period of an IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship tournament game in Ottawa, Ontario on Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

United States' Cole Eiserman (91) celebrates his goal against Canada with Zeev Buium (28) during the third period of an IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship tournament game in Ottawa, Ontario on Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Rudy Giuliani seemed to favorably impress a judge with three hours of testimony Friday at a contempt hearing as he insisted he's not hiding assets from lawyers trying to recover a $148 million judgment for two Georgia election workers.

Judge Lewis J. Liman seemed less inclined to find the former mayor in contempt for failing to turn over some assets, including a valuable signed Joe DiMaggio jersey that appeared to go missing after Giuliani said he last saw it around Sept. 11 in his Manhattan apartment.

The judge said Giuliani can finish his testimony Monday by appearing remotely from his Florida residence as he explains why some assets and the paperwork related to them have been hard to locate and forfeit.

When he asked a lawyer for the election workers if the plaintiffs were more interested in recovering assets than finding Giuliani in contempt, attorney Meryl Conant Governski quickly agreed, saying contempt was not “our primary goal.”

Governski, more matter-of-fact than confrontational, elicited from Giuliani how overwhelmed he felt by court orders coming at him in multiple cases across the country at once.

She left the judge, at times, to jump in with a stern statement, like when he told Giuliani flatly: “You're in violation of a court order at least in regards to that,” referring to the DiMaggio jersey.

Giuliani said repeatedly that he wasn't purposefully trying to withhold assets. He portrayed himself as forgetful, disorganized at times and having delegated to others some of the chores regarding his assets and the legal case surrounding them.

He complained that the two-week time frame he was given to respond to some requests “was very short,” compared with how long he was given to provide information in 15 to 20 other court cases he's involved in.

He said he has turned over all his valuable watches except for a 120-year-old gold watch that his grandfather gave him.

“I was holding it so it didn't get lost,” he said. “I felt like it could get lost if it was turned over.”

When the judge asked if he understood that the watch was required to be turned over, he said he “wasn't trying to hide it from anyone” and would give it up “if you can assure me you'll put it in a safe place.”

Giuliani said the New York Yankees had been very good to him and he at one point had as many as 100 Yankees items, but he gave most everything away, including signed pictures of Reggie Jackson and Joe DiMaggio together and another of Yogi Berra and Babe Ruth.

“I get confused about what I have and don't have,” he said, claiming he lost some belongings during his most recent divorce six years ago.

The election workers' lawyers say Giuliani has displayed a “consistent pattern of willful defiance” of Liman’s October order to give up assets after he was found liable in 2023 for defaming their clients by falsely accusing them of tampering with ballots during the 2020 presidential election.

They said in court papers this week that he has turned over a Mercedes-Benz and his New York apartment but not the paperwork necessary to monetize the assets. And they said he has failed to surrender watches and sports memorabilia, including the DiMaggio jersey, and not “a single dollar from his nonexempt cash accounts.”

Liman said in an order last week that Giuliani's lawyer should be ready to explain why he should not be held in contempt with resulting sanctions that could make it less likely he gets to keep his Florida home. A trial over the disposition of the Palm Beach condominium and World Series rings is scheduled for mid-January.

Giuliani says the Palm Beach property is his personal residence now and should be shielded from the judgment.

His lawyers have predicted that he will eventually win custody of the items on appeal.

Associated Press writer Larry Neumeister contributed to this report.

Rudy Giuliani leaves Manhattan federal court in New York, on Friday, Jan. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Rudy Giuliani speaks to the media outside of Manhattan federal court in New York, on Friday, Jan. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Rudy Giuliani speaks to the media outside of Manhattan federal court in New York, on Friday, Jan. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

FILE — Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, wearing a New York Yankees championship ring, pulls his face mask down to speak to an aide during a press conference at the Women's Republican Club, Sept. 16, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

FILE - Rudy Giuliani speaks outside the Fulton County jail in Atlanta, on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)