Canada wins exhibition game over Latvia

RIGA, Latvia Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored twice and captain Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist as Canada thumped Latvia 6-1 Tuesday in its only warmup game before the upcoming world hockey championship.

Pierre-Luc Dubois also had a goal and an assist for Canada, while Anthony Beauvillier and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored the other Canadian goals.

Colton Parayko led Canada in points with three assists.

“I thought our team looked skilled tonight, we made a lot of good plays and may have had more based on chances,” McDavid said. “We definitely need to tighten up defensively, we gave up too many chances but it’s an adjustment for all of us. (Some of us are) not used to the Olympic ice but we gotta get used to that.”

Rodrigo Abols scored the only goal for Latvia, one minute after McDavid opened the scoring at 16:59 of the first period.

Canada broke open a 1-1 tie with three goals in the second period, adding another two in the third.

Darcy Kuemper stopped 15 shots for Canada over the opening two periods before giving way to Curtis McElhinney, who stopped all 12 shots he faced in a busy third.

Kristers Gudlevskis stopped 37-of43 shots before Matiss Kivleneks took over for the last 10 minutes. Kivleneks faced three shots, stopping them all.

Canada’s first game at the world championship is Friday against the United States at Herning, Denmark.