Canada edges Latvia in OT
McDavid bats in rebound for winner, to face Edmonton teammate Draisaitl, Germany today
HERNING, Denmark (CP) — After having trouble scoring at 5-on-5, Connor McDavid and the Canadians proved to be deadly at 3-on-3.
McDavid scored 46 seconds into overtime, batting his own rebound out of the air past goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis, as Canada edged Latvia 2-1 on Monday and clinched a quarterfinal berth at the world hockey championship.
The combination of McDavid, Ryan NugentHopkins and Aaron Ekblad dominated play at 3-on-3 in the overtime session as Canada got two much-needed points.
“Those guys are so deadly with the puck, especially with Connor’s speed,” said Canadian forward Ryan O’Reilly. “The way he beats the guy up the wall and creates a scoring chance and ends the game, it’s definitely dangerous. That was huge, getting that goal.”
Anthony Beauvillier opened the scoring for Canada 2:51 into the first period, staying with the play to shovel in a loose puck after Gudlevskis failed to completely freeze a tip in front of the net by Jean-Gabriel Pageau.
Beauvillier skated on a line with Pageau and Matt Barzal as coach Bill Peters shuffled his units in an effort to spark more offence after a disappointing 5-1 loss to Finland on Saturday.
“I thought it was a mixed bag,” Peters said about the changes. “We’re still trying to find the right combinations. Tyson Jost went in there and played well — I thought that line (with Bo Horvat and Jordan Eberle) was good. I thought the Barzal line probably had their best game of the tournament.
“I thought those two lines were dangerous for us on a consistent basis. Now we’ve got to get contributions from others throughout the lineup.”
Canada goaltender Darcy Kuemper was sharp through two periods in his first start since Canada’s tournament-opening 5-4 shootout loss to the United States on May 4, but was beaten 1:50 into the third on a Kristians Rubins point shot, Latvia’s 14th of the game.
Canada closes out the round robin today against Leon Draisaitl-led Germany.