The result marked the first victory for the US over Canada on December 31 in 18 years, after suffering six loses and one tie in the previous seven meetings.

The Americans silenced the crowd early with two goals from their power-plays.

Colin White opened the scoring before Jordan Greenway added a second only a minute later.

Thomas Chabot cut the deficit for Canada to make it 2-1, which inspired the crowd inside the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.

Several minutes of intense pressure followed, but Canada failed to get the equaliser and the visitors silenced the crowd with a third goal.

This time it was Jeremy Bracco who found the back of the net to clinch the win for the Americans.

Both teams have qualified for the last eight of the tournament where the US will play Switzerland while Canada have drawn the Czech Republic.

Meanwhile, in the final match in Group B Russia defeated Slovakia 2-0 at the Air Canada Centre.

Both teams have progressed to the next stage of the competition, despite the result, where Russia will play Denmark and Slovakia will take on Sweden on Monday (January 2). 

Despite the fact that almost the entire first period was played in the Slovak end, the game was scoreless after 20 minutes. 

Russia came close to the first goal midway through the second period when captain Kirill Kaprizov fed a nice pass to Mikhail Vorobyov whose shot hit the post.

Denis Guryanov made no mistake soon after as he opened the scoring before his teammate, Yakov Trenin, added a second moments later.

Elsewhere, in group A, Jonathan Dahlen scored a hat-trick as Sweden beat the Czech Republic 5-2 at Centre Bell in Montreal to complete a perfect round-robin campaign.

The Swedish team have now won all five of their group matches and finish top of Group A with 12 points.

Other scorers for Sweden were Rasmus Asplund, who added a goal and an assist, and Jens Looke.

Despite already being consigned to the relegation rounds, Finland defeated Switzerland 2-0 in Group A in the fourth and final match of today.

They arrived as defending champions, but were eliminated from quarter-finals contention when Switzerland beat Denmark 5-4 in a shoot-out yesterday.

Compounding the shock, the Finnish federation then relieved head coach Jukka Rautakorpi and his assistants of their duties.

Action takes a break tomorrow with a rest day before resuming on Monday where quarter-final and Finland's relegation round match with Latvia take place.