Canada makes no mistake
Ramps up its game in shutting out Slovakia following shaky opener
BUFFALO, N.Y.— The idea of the preliminary round at the IIHF world junior hockey championship, at least as far as hockey powerhouses like Canada are concerned, is to get better game by game.
And two games in, it’s mission accomplished for Team Canada.
Jonah Gadjovich scored twice, while Sam Steel, Jordan Kyrou, Taylor Raddysh and Maxime Comtois scored once each for Canada in a dominating 6-0 win over Slovakia in Group A action.
Kyrou, a St. Louis Blues prospect, finished with three points, helping set up goals by Steel and Raddysh.
“Overall a good game,” Kyrou said. “We got better as the game went on. We started doing the little things right, like getting on top of guys.”
Kyrou provided the highlight of the night, scoring Canada’s second goal after Slovakia goalie David Hrenak had performed heroics in keeping the Canadian shooters at bay. It was a dipsy-doodle play in the slot, undressing Slovakia’s Erik Smolka on a power play to create space and set up a wrist shot.
Much like defenceman Cal Foote’s diving hand save against Finland in the opener, Kyrou’s teammates couldn’t believe his moves.
“That was a big goal because the goalie on the other side was making a lot of saves,” Canada coach Dominique Ducharme said.
“At some point you want to get that second one and have a bit of a cushion. It was a big goal, and the way he scored, the guys were excited about it and it energized the bench a little bit.”
Kyrou has 19 goals in 30 games with the OHL’s Sarnia Sting. Some of them, electrifying in nature.
Colton Point got the win in his first start in net for Canada in what was another sparsely populated, but pro-Canada crowd at the KeyBank Center.
Point got the shutout, stopping all 20 shots.
“There weren’t very many highdanger shots, but a shot is still a shot, and you have to treat them all the same,” Point said. “I felt I made the saves I needed to.”
Both goalies now have a win, with Carter Hart expected to get back in net Friday against the U.S. in the first outdoor game to be played in world junior history.
“He was solid,” Ducharme said of Point. “We can’t ask for more.”
The Canadians outskated, outhustled, outplayed, outhit and out-everything-ed Slovakia, which should be expected given every Canadian has been drafted by an NHL team — including seven in the first round — while only two on the Slovak roster have.
Canada doesn’t have a game Thursday but will head to New Era Stadium — home of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills — to practise on the outdoor rink.
The Americans got their outdoor practice in on Wednesday.
“It’s about the environment, not just the ice,” Ducharme said. “We won’t be on the ice long. We want our guys to feel the ice, to feel the stadium. We’ll see how the ice is.”
Canada will go into the halfway point of the preliminary round with a 2-0 record. The Americans, who beat Denmark in their opener, play their second game on Thursday against the Slovaks.
Ducharme is fond of talking about building off the last game. In other words, identify what was done well, and keep doing it. Identify what was done poorly, and act to improve on it.
In Canada’s game against Finland in the opener — a 4-2 win — Ducharme thought the Canadians didn’t have enough energy, didn’t skate as well as they could and as a result, took too many penalties. Canada gave Finland six power plays.
Canada took just two penalties against the Slovaks, and scored on three of six penalties taken by Slovakia.