Forward Frank Nazar set the pace with a goal and two assists as the U.S. downed hapless Kazakhstan 6-1 at the 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship on Sunday. After a slow start, the Americans blew the game open with five second-period goals. 

Jackson Lacombe, Tage Thompson, Matty Beniers, Michael Kesselring, and Zach Werenski also scored for the Americans, who are hunting for their first medal since 2021's bronze and first gold since 1933. Goalie Jeremy Swayman recorded 16 saves for the win.

Of the second-period explosion, Lacombe said: "We kind of had the puck in the O-zone almost the whole period. I thought we did a great job at possession and making plays. We still let them breathe for a while, and then we got a few goals."



Vladimir Volkov replied for Kazakhstan, which was outshot 38-17.

After Kazakhstan relied on 22-year-old netminders Maxim Pavlenko and Jelal-ad-din Amirbekov in earlier preliminary round games, Sergei Kudryavstev got his first start. The 30-year-old veteran, who previously played for Barys Astana, made 21 saves on 26 shots before being replaced by Pavlenko for the third period.

Kazakhstan – with just three points in the standings from an opening 2-1 win over Norway – came into this game in desperate straits. Its last Group B game is against 2024 silver medalist Switzerland on Tuesday. That means coach Oleg Bolyakin’s crew will likely need the Hungarians to help them avoid relegation by defeating the Norwegians, who sit last with just one point, on Monday.

Assistant captain Nikita Mikhailis downplayed the notion of rooting for Hungary versus Norway: "I think no, because we should focus on our own game. We have the last game against Switzerland, and we should think about this more and play our best."

The Americans have just one loss in Group B so far, falling 3-0 to the Swiss. Coach Ryan Warsofsky’s team did a much better job of putting Kazakhstan away than they did in the 6-5 overtime win over Norway and the 6-3 victory over Germany, where opponents were allowed to rally from sizable deficits.

Looking ahead to the U.S.'s preliminary-round finale versus the defending champion Czechs, Thompson said: "I think puck management is going to be the biggest thing for us. Obviously, we know we can score, and I think for us, when we get into trouble, we start to complicate things, do a little bit too much with the puck and fuel the other team's offence. We know they're dangerous when they have it, so we've got to make them earn everything they're going to get."

In a scoreless first period versus Kazakhstan, the Americans were rather somnolent. The Kazakhs showed good hustle to clog up the middle, force their superior opponents to the outside, and break up plays with their sticks.

In the middle frame, the Kazakhs sacrificed their bodies to preserve the deadlock. Forward Dinmukhamed Kaiyrzhan skated off gingerly after blocking a Thompson drive. But the underdogs’ good times wouldn’t last.

Nazar, coming off his rookie season with the Chicago Blackhawks, looped around the Kazakh zone and cut toward the hash marks to zing his fourth of this tournament past Kudryavstev at 6:58.

"He's been great," Thompson said of Nazar. "I love his game. Works extremely hard, moves his feet, shoots, gets to the net. All the things you want out of a guy, and he's been doing them consistently, so it's been big."

At 11:46, Lacombe sailed a centre-point wrister past the screened Kazakh netminder for a 2-0 gap.

The third American goal at 14:00 was created by Zeev Buium, a two-time World Junior gold medalist and 2024 first-round pick of the Minnesota Wild who just made NHL playoff debut. The San Diego native looked like Bobby Orr as he carried the puck end-to-end before dishing it to Thompson for his fifth goal so far.

Just 58 seconds later, Beniers raced in to beat the Kazakh netminder cleanly on the glove side and make it 4-0. That prompted Bolyakin to call his timeout, aiming to get the squad refocused. But it was fruitless. Kesselring increased the lead with a bad-angle shot with 56 seconds left in the period.

At 5:54 of the third period, Werenski was allowed to walk right in and put the U.S. up 6-0. The former Soviet republic was unable to break Swayman's shutout during a man advantage with Logan Cooley off for slashing mid-period, but Volkov scored on a shorthanded break with 50 seconds left to make it 6-1.

Mikhailis offered an optimistic analysis of the game: "Team USA is a very good team with very qualified players. If we played the match like we did in the first period, we could battle back and maybe win also. So many mistakes that we did influenced this match. We had two power plays, and if we had scored, the game could change in that way."

The U.S. has won all six of its WM encounters with Kazakhstan. The previous scores were 10-0 in 2010, 3-2 in 2012 (overtime), 4-3 in 2014 (overtime), 3-0 in 2021, and 10-1 in 2024.