Team Canada Blows Out Team U.S.A. in World Championship Opener

Team Canada looked very impressive in their IIHF World Championships opening game in St. Petersburg, Russia vs Team USA as ten different players hit the scoresheet and solid goaltending from Cam Talbot (Edmonton Oilers) led them to a 5-1 drubbing of their neighbours to the south. (TSN Game Page)

Patrick Maroon (Edmonton Oilers) opened the scoring for Team USA just 4:54 into the game on the power-play beating Team Canada goalie Cam Talbot.

Just 31 seconds later Taylor Hall (Edmonton Oilers) drove to the net and took a feed from Derick Brassard and scored from a tight angle to even the score for Team Canada.

Team Canada took the lead on a goal from birthday boy Brendan Gallagher (Montreal Canadiens) as he wristed a shot top corner from the circle over US goale Keith Kinkaid at the 8:48 mark of the 1st period.

Matt Duchene (Colorado Avalanche) would extend the Team Canada lead to 3-1 around the midway point of the 2nd period making a nice move in the circle to Kinkaid’s left and snapping a shot over the shoulder of the Team USA goalie.

Just 5:54 into the 3rd period, Boone Jenner (Columbus Blue Jackets) added an insurance goal for Team Canada to make it a 4-1 game. Jenner skated out from behind the net and directed the puck towards the net which appeared to tip off a defenceman’s stick and past Kinkaid.

Then around the mid-point of the 3rd period, Brad Marchand (Boston Bruins) scored a short-handed goal to extend Team Canada’s blow-out lead to 5-1. Matt Duchene stole the puck from Auston Matthews and tipped it to Marchand who outraced the USA defence to the net and slipped the puck into the Team USA net.

Team Canada goalie Cam Talbot (Edmonton Oilers) stopped 24 of 25 shots for a 0.960 save percentage.

The next game for Team Canada is Sunday, May 8th against Hungary at 3:15am (MT), then Monday, May 9th against Belarus at 7:15am (MT) and then they close out the round-robin schedule on Thursday, May 12th against Germany at 11:15am (MT).

by BizzleJ