Russia have won their opening match of the IIHF World Junior Ice Hockey Championship ©IIHF

Last year's runners-up Russia started their 2021 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Junior Ice Hockey Championship campaign with a 5-3 victory over traditional rivals the United States on the opening day of the competition at Rogers Place in Edmonton in Canada.

A double from Vasili Ponomaryov helped the Russians to victory during a dominant second period.

Ponomaryov opened the scoring before Cam York equalised for the US at the end of the first period; but the next third of the match would be dominated by the favourites.

Zakhar Bardakov started a dominant period that ended with a 4-1 lead to the Russians, with Ponomaryov scoring a second and Ilya Safonov adding to their advantage.

Penalties for Russia in the final period gave the US a way back into the match with John Farinacci and Trevor Zegras bringing the deficit down to one, before Yegor Chinakhov took advantage of a US team overloading in attack to put the game beyond doubt.

Earlier in the day, Slovakia won the opening match of the tournament after Roman Faith scored late in the final period to score the only goal of the game.

A 1-0 defeat of Switzerland ensured a strong start to the tournament, with a place in the quarter-finals looking promising.

A depleted Germany lost 5-3 to Finland in the other match on day one of the Championship.

Ten players and eight staff members from the German team had been released from quarantine in time for the match, joining the six players who had previously been released from quarantine.

Three of the eight players that tested positive for COVID-19 last week are still in quarantine until December 27, while the remainder must continue quarantining until at least December 29.

One unnamed player tested positive for COVID-19 and must remain in quarantine until at least January 4 2021, the day before the tournament is due to conclude.

Anton Lundell and Aku Raty put the Finns 2-0 up after the first period, and Mikael Pyyhtia added a third early in the second.

Samuel Dube and Tim Stutzle clawed Germany back into the match but minutes later any hopes of a comeback faded after Topi Niemela and Henri Nikkanen made it 5-2.

Florian Elias scored the only goal in the third period to give the Germans a consolation.

Sweden are set to face Czech Republic, Germany are due to meet Canada and the US go up against Austria on the second day of competition.