U.S. beats France in first game of hockey world championships

HELSINKI (AP) -- New York Islanders forward Kyle Okposo scored twice to help the United States beat France 7-2 on Friday in the first game of the world hockey championships.

Jack Johnson, Bobby Ryan, Max Pacioretty, Jim Slater and Jeff Petry also scored for the Americans in the Group A game. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Nicolas Besch scored for France.

The United States will face Canada on Saturday.

The Canadians opened with a 3-2 victory over Slovakia. Jamie Benn, Jordan Eberle and Andrew Ladd scored for Canada, and Tomas Tatar and Milan Bartovic had goals for Slovakia.

In the other Group A game, Finland beat Belarus 1-0. In Group B in Stockholm, Sweden beat Norway 3-1, the Czech Republic edged Denmark 2-0, and Germany topped Italy 3-0.