As a result of the victory at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada moved top of group B alongside the United States.

Both teams, after this evening's fixtures, boast a perfect record and the winner of their crunch clash on Saturday (December 31) will secure first place moving into the quarter-finals.

Taylor Raddysh led Canada's attack with a national record of four goals and one assist while Dylan Strome also added four assists in an impressive display.

Matt Barzal opened the scoring before Nicolas Roy added a second.

Raddysh then made it 3-0 with his first strike of the match before adding his second straight after.

Latvian coach Rriks Miluns decided to switch goalkeeper during the contest, inserting Gustavs Grigals who conceded four goals in the space of two minutes, including Raddysh's third.

Raddysh got his fourth early in the third period before Renars Krastenbergs and Martins Dzierkals scored two consolation strikes for the Europeans.

Canada's Julien Gauthier added a late goal to make it a convincing 10 for the hosts.

"I have to be happy with what happened," a delighted Raddysh said.

"I don't know if I'll ever get another four-goal game. It was a lot of fun."

"We'll be ready (for the United States match).

"It doesn't matter who we play; we'll just stick to our system, get pucks low, play strong defensively.

Meanwhile the American team secured their place in Saturday's crunch match with their North American rivals with a narrow 3-2 win over Russia at the Air Canada Centre.

A stunning solo effort form Clayton Keller opened the scoring for the Americans before Kirill Urakov levelled the match for the Europeans.

Colin White then handed the US the lead once more before Troy Terry scored his team's third.

Kirill Kaprizov added a second for Russia to set up a tense finish but the Americans held on to claim their third win of the tournament.

Elsewhere, Sweden secured top spot in group A and their place in the next round with a 3-1 win over defending champions Finland at Centre Bell in Montreal.

Finland's reign as champions appears to be fading quickly and if Switzerland beat Denmark on Friday they will be eliminated.

Alexander Nylander scored twice for Sweden and added an assist while Lias Andersson added the third.

In the final match of today, Mathias From scored an overtime winner as Denmark defeated the Czech Republic 3-2.

Joachim Blichfeld and Nikolaj Krag also scored for Denmark at Centre Bell in Montreal while Martin Necas and Filip Hronek were on target for the Czechs.

Tomorrow's action sees Switzerland take on the Denmark, while Slovakia meet Latvia.