Kirk, who was selected in the seventh round of the NHL Draft back in 2018, made a spectacular impact at this year’s World Championship in Latvia.
The groups for Tampere and Helsinki are based on the World Ranking taking into consideration organizational wishes by the 2022 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Organizing Committee.
The other seven-goal forward in Latvia was Great Britain’s Liam Kirk. The 21-year-old, the first English born and developed player to be selected in an NHL draft, led the way for his country. His two goals against Belarus set up GB’s first regulation time victory at this level since 1962 and helped to earn him a place alongside Mangiapane in the media’s All-Star select. The third forward to make that team was Conor Garland, whose 13 (6+7) points for team USA placed him second in overall scoring and helped to secure a bronze for the Americans.
The 21-year-old scored seven goals in seven matches, which was the same tally as Andrew Mangiapane who was part of Canada’s gold medal-winning side as the Canadians beat Finland 3-2 in overtime in the final.
Kirk scored his sixth and seventh goals of the group stage to go one ahead of Gregory Hofmann who was on target for the Swiss.
GB have four points from their six matches thanks to a victory over Belarus and an overtime defeat by Denmark.