An event record crowd of 44,592 was in attendance at Erie County’s Ralph Wilson Stadium as the defending champions came from 3-1 down in the third period to send the Group A game to overtime and then scored the only two goals of the shootout.

Kieffer Bellows and Brady Tkachuk scored in the shootout, while all four Canadians - Sam Steel, Robert Thomas, Taylor Raddysh and Drake Batherson - failed to convert.

Cale Makar, Dillon Dube and Boris Katchouk all registered for Canada in regulation time, while Bellows, Scott Perunovich and Tkachuk were on target for the home nation.

America's Casey Mittelstadt followed up his sensational goal in yesterday’s surprise loss to Slovakia with three assists today.

He now leads all scorers with six points from three games.

Victory moves the Americans into second place in Group A with five points, two behind 2017 silver medallists Canada.

Group B action also continued today with 2011 champions Russia earning a comfortable 5-2 win over Belarus at Buffalo's HarborCenter.

Klim Kostin managed two goals for the Russians, while Alexei Polodyan, German Rubtsov and Artur Kayumov  all chipped in with one apiece.

"I can’t talk about myself personally," Kostin said.

"I can just talk about my team-mates, who made sure that I scored."

Sergei Pishuk and Dmitri Deryabin were the goalscorers for Belarus, who have failed to pick up a single point from their three matches thus far.

Russia are now second in Group B on six points, trailing leaders Sweden by virtue of an inferior goal difference.

The top four sides in each group will progress to the quarter-finals with competition due to continue tomorrow.