ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Team USA finally showed some energy in the World Cup of Hockey, beating Slovakia 3-1 Friday for its first win in the tournament.

Bill Guerin, Jason Blake and Bryan Smolinski scored for the younger, quicker, U.S. team, which moved into third place in the North American Division. After being outworked against Canada and Russia, U.S. coach Ron Wilson benched NHL star Brett Hull along with three other regulars. The Americans responded with their best offensive output of the tournament, outshooting Slovakia 39-17. On the Americans’ third shot of the game, Smolinski – who was scratched from the previous two games – poked in a rebound past Jan Lasak to give his team a 1-0 lead at 3:09.

Slovakia tied it at 8:46 when Pavol Demitra found Ladislav Nagy on the left side of net, and Nagy beat DiPietro on his glove side.

The Americans regained the lead when Blake scored his first goal of the tournament at 13:27 of the first.

Guerin sealed the win at 16:17 of the third on a breakaway when he backhanded a shot past Lasak. Slovakia had only two shots in the final period.

AP-ES-09-03-04 2144EDT