ESBJERG, Denmark (AP) — Hilary Knight scored a hat trick and defending champion United States cruised past the Czech Republic 8-1 at the women’s ice hockey world championship on Wednesday to finish the preliminary stage with a perfect record.

Knight buried her own rebound a to make it 2-0 in the opening frame and found a space in between the pads of Czech goaltender Aneta Senkova from the right circle early in the second.

She added her third with a short-handed goal in the third period to increase the margin to seven in the Group A game in Esbjerg.

The 37-year-old U.S. captain took her tally to six goals in the tournament in Denmark and a total of 73 goals in 91 games at the worlds.

Abbey Murphy scored twice, Alex Carpenter and Laila Edwards got a goal and an assist each and Grace Zumwinkle had one goal. Goaltender Aerin Frankel stopped 11 shots.

Murphy opened the scoring from the low slot 0:53 into the game and one-timed a slap shot to increase the advantage to 4-0.

After that goal, the Czechs pulled Senkova and replace her with Daniela Novakova.

Zumwinkle added to the lead and Edwards used a 5-on-3 advantage to score the sixth late in the second.

Taylor Fox also got three assists for the Americans, who will play host Denmark in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Natalie Mlynkova scored the consolation goal for the Czechs who finished fourth to set up a quarterfinal game against Canada.

The Canadians won Group B with a perfect record after blanking Finland 2-0.

Goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens finished with 25 saves for the shutout, the third straight for Canada in Group B.

Caitlin Kraemer scored the go-ahead goal in the opening period after she skated from her defensive zone along the boards before beating Finland goalie Sanni Ahola.

Sarah Fillier added the second in the final period.

Finland captain Jenni Hiirikoski, who is playing at a record 17th worlds, became the first woman to play 100 games at the tournament.

In another Group B game, Wilma Sundin led Sweden's 5-0 shutout of Japan with two goals. The Swedes face Switzerland while Finland plays Germany next.

Earlier in Group A, Germany rallied to beat Switzerland 3-1 after Laura Kluge and Katarina Jobst-Smith scored 55 seconds apart in the middle period to give the Germans the lead.

Alessia Baechler had given Switzerland the lead in the opening period.

___

See AP’s full women’s hockey coverage here