Having faced one of the stronger teams in the World Juniors on Monday in Russia, Canada was greeted by an inferior Slovakia team on Tuesday.
Team Canada held control of the play throughout the game, and after a bit of a feeling out phase in period one, hit the score sheet in bunches.
The power play continued to thrive with another two goals this game, and Canada received balanced scoring with five unique goal scorers, and ten players recording at least one point.
Connor Ingram got the start in goal for Canada and though he wasn’t busy, he made the saves when needed to get the shutout in a 5-0 win.
“We stuck with our game and we stuck with our identity,” Team Canada head coach Dominique Ducharme told TSN after the game. “I think guys really played an unselfish game and played together. That was overall a pretty solid game, especially the second and third.”
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No early goals
The Canadians didn’t look as strong against Slovakia in the first period as they did against Russia yesterday. Though they outshot their opposition 14-2, most of the shots were from the outside, not forcing Slovak goaltender Adam Huska to make too many difficult saves.
Shots 13-2 Canada but Slovakia did a good job keeping them to the outside. If they can keep it tied into the third, anything can happen.
— Scott Wheeler (@scottcwheeler) December 28, 2016
Jost the spark once again
For the second game in a row, it was Tyson Jost getting things going for Canada.
Against Russia, Jost opened the scoring on a beautiful move to the backhand that he buried top shelf.
Today, the Colorado Avalanche prospect set things up with a sweet dish for defenceman Jeremy Lauzon, who ripped one home to open the scoring.
Jeremy Lauzon fires one home for the game’s first goal! 1-0 Canada. @CanadianTire #BigPlay #WorldJuniors https://t.co/JLvAqi0ZFz pic.twitter.com/K70zFN8PQW
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) December 28, 2016
Canada gets rolling
Once the spark was provided by Jost, the rest of Team Canada responded.
First, it was Taylor Raddysh roofing one over the glove of Huska to double Canada’s lead.
A nice pass by Dubois leads to this Raddysh goal. 2-0 Canada pic.twitter.com/Jix7uuTn6R
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) December 28, 2016
It was yet another power play goal for Canada, who now have four in just two games this tournament.
Just a few minutes later it was another goal for Canada when Anthony Cirelli deflected a shot by Lauzon that went bar down.
Anthony Cirelli’s redirection puts Canada up 3-0! @CanadianTire #BigPlay #WorldJuniors https://t.co/JLvAqi0ZFz pic.twitter.com/A5bUULlGJu
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) December 28, 2016
Make that five power play goals and 4-0 Canada.
Chabot puts Canada up 4-0. Slovakia is struggling to contain an endless stream of offense. pic.twitter.com/qFO1Ksc3ZF
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) December 28, 2016
This time it was Thomas Chabot getting his first of the tournament, scoring Canada’s fourth goal on their 31st shot of the game. Slovakia, meanwhile, had just three shots on net after 40 minutes.
Balanced scoring continues
It took just a few minutes into the final frame for Canada to get their fifth goal when Michael McLeod drove to the net and chipped a feed past Huska.
McLeod scores … so Canada's 7th d-man & 13th forward both have goals tonight … great pass by Cirelli
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) December 28, 2016
No shots for Slovaks
Okay, maybe not no shots, but the Slovaks really struggled getting any king of offence going against Canada. In fact, they tied a World Junior record for fewest shots ever in a game with six. The only other team to do that was in 2000, when Belarus also had just six against Canada.
#Canada after 2 games vs Russia and Slovakia @HC_WJC
10 Goals For
13 players with points
3 Goals Against
23 Shots surrendered
#TSN— Jon Abbott (@HockeyAbbs) December 28, 2016
In the end, Canada never faced any sort of adversity in this one, winning 5-0 and outshooting Slovakia 45-6. It was as one-sided as it gets.
HIGHLIGHTS: Watch Team Canada (@HC_Men) defeat Slovakia to remain unbeaten in this year’s #WorldJuniors. pic.twitter.com/WoL6vq1tS4
— IIHF WJC (@iihf_wjc) December 28, 2016
Team Canada will have a day off on Wednesday before getting back in action Thursday against Latvia (5 pm PT / 8 pm ET on TSN).