OSTRAVA (AP) _ Brady Tkachuk had three goals and an assist to lead the United States past Kazakhstan 10-1 on Sunday at the world hockey championship.
In a later Group B contest, Latvia prevailed over Slovakia 3-2 in a shootout to send the U.S. to the next round.
Its fourth victory lifted the Americans into second place in Group B with 13 points, one ahead of Germany and Slovakia with a game against Latvia, which has nine points, on Tuesday to play in the preliminary round.
Johnny Gaudreau had a goal and four assists to become the United States record scorer with 43 points, one more than Patrick Kane.
Matt Boldy scored twice and had four assists, Brock Nelson and Luke Kunin both had a goal and an assist and Gavin Brindley and Kevin Hayes also scored.
Alex Nedeljkovic made 13 saves.
In a four-goal opening period, Tkachuk tipped in a shot by Zach Werenski on a power play to increase the U.S. lead to 2-0, and buried a rebound to make it 4-0 on a power play.
He completed his hat trick to increase the advantage to 8-0 with a one-timed shot from the right circle on another power play in the final period.
Alikhan Omirbekov scored for Kazakhstan with the Americans leading 9-0.
In Group A, Austria beat Norway 4-1 in Prague and is tied for fourth with Finland.
The top four from each group advance to the playoff round.
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
The Associated Press
