After crushing Sweden 7-0 in their opening match, the USA saw off Norway by the same scoreline as 21-year-old forward Josh Pauls led the way with four goals.

"This was the best career game I've had," said Pauls said.

"I've never scored four goals in a single game before.

"I'm not really even a scorer.

"It wasn't just me, though, my linesman were giving me great passes and we were just really rolling as a team."

With the event serving as a qualifier for Sochi 2014, it means that the US now on the verge of taking one of the five spots from the event for the Paralympic Games in Russia next year.

The qualification spots will be officially announced after the group play concludes when the top five finishers are confirmed.

The Czech Republic are also closing in on a Sochi 2014 spot after their second straight win, this time with a low-scoring 1-0 win over Sweden with the lone goal coming from forward Jiri Berger.

"We are not tired yet and we still have a lot of energy left in us for this tournament," Beger said.

"We surprised the USA last year at the World Championships and beat them, so I think we hurt their confidence a little bit and that could play to our advantage this year."

Canada are another team closing in on Sochi 2014 as the secured a thrilling 4-3 victory over Russia while Italy upset host nation Korea 2-1 in front of a vocal Goyang crowd in the final game of the day.

Teams now have a day off before resuming play for the final slate of group games on Tuesday (April 16).

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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