Windsor Spitfire Mikhail Sergachev scored for Russia, but it was Canada dominating 5-3 in round-robin play at the IIHF World Junior Championships Monday night.
Dylan Strome scored twice for Team Canada, once in the second period and next in the third in their first game of the tournament, played at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.
Tyson Jost started the scoring in the game at 3:11 in the first period, but it would be Windsor's own Sergachev with the equalizer late in the period.
Canada scored twice in the second period, first with Strome's first goal of the game, the second a few minutes later in the period from Nicolas Roy.
Canada and Russia would exchange goals in the third period, with Canada's Mathew Barzal connecting just after three minutes into the frame, though Russia's Kirill Kaprizov would pull within two goals again two minutes after that. Strome would strike again for Canada at 9:06 in the period. Yegor Rykov would score later in the frame, but Canada skated away with the win.
Barzal also had two assists for Canada, whose next opponent will be Slovakia Tuesday night.
Elsewhere in the first day of the tournament, the United States beat Latvia 6-1, Sweden beat Denmark 6-1 and the Czech Republic doubled up Finland 2-1.