Landon DuPont flashed his offensive skill to help Canada grab a win at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup.
DuPont opened the scoring and added an assist as Canada beat Slovakia 7-1 to improve to 2-0 in Edmonton.
Kayden Stroeder scored twice for Canada, while Ryerson Edgar, Liam Pue and Alexis Joseph had a goal and assist each.
Leif Oaten wasn’t busy in Canada’s net but made 12 saves for the win. Canada fired 48 shots at Slovakia's goaltender Nicko Zakk Havel.
DuPont, who is projected to go No. 1 in the 2027 NHL Draft, scored a power-play goal just over two minutes into the start of the first period. Slovakia quickly tied it up, but Warren scored 19 seconds after that on a nifty move in front to put Canada up for good.
Stroeder’s first goal came halfway through the second period, on the power play, to put Canada up 3-1. Edgar, Stroeder and Pue then padded the lead with goals in the third. Joseph capped Canada's scoring with 16 seconds to play in the third period when his pass on a two-on-one deflected into the net.
The win comes after Canada defeated Switzerland 7-3 on Monday.
The Swiss shook up the table on Tuesday, though, with a 7-6 win over Sweden. The winner came with just two seconds to play in regulation and put Sweden in real trouble heading into the final day of round-robin play.
Sweden, which also dropped a point by needing overtime to beat Slovakia on Monday, will miss the playoffs unless they can beat Canada on Wednesday.
In the other group, the United States faced Finland while Czechia defeated Germany 8-3.
The Hlinka Gretzky Cup is an annual under-18 tournament hosted by Hockey Canada, the Czech Ice Hockey Association, and the Slovak Ice Hockey Federation. While it is not a formal IIHF event, it is one of the first opportunities for the next generation of hockey stars to represent Canada in an international competition.
Following Wednesday’s final round-robin games, the semifinals will take place Friday and the medal games will be played Saturday. The United States are the defending gold-medalists.
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