Matthew Wood blasted a hat-trick as Canada powered to a big victory over the Czechs. The 8-3 verdict gives Jeff Truitt’s team second place in Group A, setting up a quarter-final clash with host nation Switzerland. Czechia, meanwhile, finished fourth in the group and faces Group B’s freescoring leader Team USA.

"I think we played a good 60 minutes," said Nick Lardis, who scored Canada's seventh goal. "Some games we started strong and didn’t finish well, other games we didn’t get a good start but finished better.

"Today we finally played a good 60 mins and it paid off at the end."

While the Czechs finished in some disarray, head coach Jakub Petr believes the game was a valuable learning experience for his team.

"It's important that the guys had a chance to play a game like this," he said. "The smart ones will take a lot from this and I will be proud when in the juniors or the men's team they will play much better, at a similar level to the Canadians or Americans."

The early stages were fairly even, and Czechia arguably had the first big chance when Eduard Sale pounced after Carter Yaremchuk failed to keep the puck in play at the point. Sale surged down the left, drew the defence towards him and picked out Jakub Stancl in front of the net, only for Carson Bjarnason to shut the door.

However, two goals in 24 seconds saw Canada finished the opening frame with a flourish. The opening goal started by doing the basics well. The Canadians won one puck battle in the corner behind their own net, then another on halfway. That enabled Colby Barlow to take the puck into the Czech zone and surprise Michael Hrabal with an early shot.

Goal number two also started deep in Canadian territory. A Czech attempt to get round the back saw the defence snap up possession and Calum Ritchie quickly got the puck to Matthew Wood. He saw clear ice in front of him and raced down the ice to double the lead on 17:40.

If Czechia was to get back into the game, it needed a strong start to the middle frame. What it got was a third Canadian goal 14 seconds after the restart. Wood was on target again, slotting the puck into a wide-open net after Macklin Celebrini powered away from Jiri Felcman on halfway and charged down the left wing.

Then came an unexpected lifeline. Angus MacDonnell took a major penalty for slashing and the power play saw Czechia on the board. Sale took up a position on the point and stepped forward to meet Dominik Petr’s feed with a venomous one-timer that fizzed in off Bjarnason’s near post.

Soon, though, the Czechs ran into penalty trouble of their own. Canada, back at full strength, was straight on the power play and Wood completed his hat-trick with a shot that squeezed through Hrabal’s defences. Riley Heidt, who joined up with the team late after his WHL playoff campaign at St. George Cougars ended, had an assist on that play.

"It’s been awesome," Heidt said of this extension to his season. "I’m still getting used to stuff but I’m grateful to have the opportunity to come out here late and I’m just trying to help out the best I can."

Felcman pulled one back late in the second to give the Czechs some hope of saving the game. However, Canada responded almost immediately with Ty Halaburda picking out a top corner finish to savour. That opened a 5-2 lead at the second intermission and effectively ended the contest.

Halaburda's first of the tournament highlights the depth of Canada's scoring, something that excites Heidt. "We got four lines," he said. "All the guys on this team are top scorers on their club teams back home. Everyone can score and we all know that.

"We don't have to worry about whose going to score, we can just keep trying to do the little things right and keep building on our game."

A high-scoring Canadian victory was a stark contrast with the heavy opening day loss to Sweden. Lardis puts the change down to growing chemistry on the team.

"Guys come from different leagues," he said. "It’s the first time playing with a lot of the guys so we’re building up chemistry, building off every game and I think we’ve done a really good job of that."

Porter Martone added a sixth for Canada at the start of the third, beating Hrabal from close range and it was turning into a question of how many this offence could score. Lardis made it 7-2 with a power play effort, bringing Hrabal’s evening to an end. Jan Kavan stepped into the game for the last 15 minutes, getting his first taste of World Championship action here. He allowed one more goal, scored by Lukas Dragicevic, before Martin Matejicek's deflected point shot gave the noisy Czech fans something to cheer late on.