BONNYVILLE, Alta. — Yaroslav Askarov made 31 saves as Russia blanked Canada West 3-0 on Wednesday at the 2018 World Junior A Hockey Challenge.

Nikolai Burenov, Aleksandr Gordin and Maksim Groshev supplied the offence for Russia (3-0-0), which sits atop the standings at the five-team tournament.

Matthew Davis started in net for Canada West (1-1-1) and was pulled after allowing three goals on 12 shots. Matthew Radomsky played the final 35 minutes and stopped all 16 shots his way.

Earlier in the day, Cal Kiefiuk and Robert Mastrosimone scored two goals each as the United States erased an early two-goal deficit to beat Canada East 7-3.

John Beaton and Derek Dicaire scored to put Canada East (0-3-0) ahead 2-0 just 3:05 into the game only for the Americans (2-0-1) to storm back with seven of the next eight goals.

Riley McCutcheon had Canada East's other goal while Jack Watson stopped 32-of-39 shots in defeat.

Preliminary-round action continues Thursday with Canada West against the Czech Republic (0-2-0).