Canada plans strong start against Americans
MALMO, SWEDEN — For the second straight game, Canada was forced to rally in the third period.
On Monday, three goals late in the frame proved to be enough as the Canadians downed Slovakia 5-3 after falling in a shootout to the Czech Republic in their previous outing at the world junior hockey championship.
Things haven’t exactly gone smoothly so far.
Now the Americans, who’ve outscored their opponents 20-4 in three wins, await Tuesday.
“I think for the first time in a while here, we’re the underdogs,” said Canadian centre Nic Petan, who scored the winning and insurance goals against Slovakia. “We’re really excited to play them.”
It’s a critical matchup between the border rivals.
Canada needs a regulation win to secure top spot in Group A. The Americans just need a victory of any kind.
The top seed in the pool plays the fourth-best team to come out of Group B. The loser is likely to get one of Sweden, Russia or Finland in Thursday’s quarter-finals.
“It will be a highly emotional game,” Canadian head coach Brent Sutter said. “That team plays a heavy game. They’re obviously a very good hockey team.
“It’s two North American teams that play hard and compete hard.”
“They have a very, very, very skilled team,” added defenceman Aaron Ekblad. “We have to come out and match that if we’re going to have a chance.”
Canada has to be ready to play from the opening puck drop against the Americans.
Once again, the Canadians surrendered the first goal against Slovakia, which they have done six times in a row dating back to pre-tournament play.
They also took six minor penalties, including a string of four unanswered in the second period.
“It comes with a strong start,” Petan said. “We can’t take dumb penalties. We took three or four dumb penalties tonight.
“We need to be more disci- plined and work harder right off the bat.”
Zach Fucale will get the call in net against the Americans. Fucale made 19 saves in the Canadian net against Slovakia with all three goals coming on the power play.
“I thought as the game went on, he was poised,” Sutter said. “He was settled in pretty good, probably by the 10-minute mark of the second period. I just liked his positional play.”
Canada will also have defenceman Griffin Reinhart back in the lineup on Tuesday. Reinhart missed the first three games of the tournament because of a suspension doled out at last year’s world juniors in Ufa, Russia.
Reinhart joins his younger brother, Sam, in the lineup, becoming the third set of siblings to play for the Canadian world junior team in the same year.
“We obviously missed him on the back end. It’s an area that we need to continue to improve as we go along,” Sutter said. “He’s going to take over some key minutes, which we need him to do.”
Reinhart last played in Canada’s final tune-up game, last Monday against Switzerland.
Assistant coach Ryan McGill has been working with him during breaks in practices and has had him doing workouts at the team’s hotel.
“I’m really looking forward to this day tomorrow,” Reinhart said. “It’s been almost a year now since I played my last world junior game. It’s fitting that it’s coming against same team that I played last year.”
Reinhart was suspended after last year’s semifinal loss to the Americans for high sticking Vincent Trocheck. The blue-liner only received a minor penalty on the play.