Canada plays with confidence in warm-up win over Sweden
OTTAWA — Connor McDavid and Curtis Lazar made their world junior debuts before 13,826 fans on Sunday night on the same line, as the national team iced its tournament lineup for the first time.
But the night in the Canadian Tire Centre really belonged to the trio of Max Domi, Sam Reinhart and Anthony Duclair. They came up with three of Canada’s goals in a 5-2 win and were a threat to score all night long.
For Canadian head coach Benoît Groulx, it was a good night.
“We played with confidence and we pushed the pace. Obviously it was a better night than the first one (Friday night). We had to battle hard to get to the dirty areas, and I thought we did a pretty good job.”
The Canadians played a solid team game. They pressed the Swedes early and often, and controlled play in their own zone, allowing the Swedes few real scoring chances.
The Canadian dominance was evident in the final shot totals of 33-19.
The first Canadian goal came on a power play after Swedish defenceman William Lagesson was penalized for holding. The goal by Domi, from Duclair and defenceman Joe Hicketts, was the kind of dirty goal that Groulx was looking for from his team Sunday night. The Canadians had three straight shots on Swedish goalie Samuel Ward before Domi slammed it into the net.
“We had some good chemistry I think, it’s working well,” Duclair said about his line after the game. “Our cycle game is a really big part of our game, and I think we just need to keep building on that.”
In Team Canada’s first pretournament tune-up, the team faced a Russian squad that many expect will be in the gold-medal game. Despite dominating the shot totals 53-20, the Canadians only scored one goal and lost 2-1 in overtime. Groulx said before Sunday night’s game that his forwards did not get “inside” and in front of the net, allowing the Russian goalie a clear view of most shots.
The team was determined to change that against a Swedish squad that includes William Nylander, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ top pick in 2014 (eighth overall), and Andreas Englund, taken 40th overall by the Ottawa Senators this year.
The Canadians were also looking for more offence from their defence, and they got two goals from the back end.
In the first, talented defenceman Josh Morrissey blasted a shot from the left point past Ward, who had just stopped a point-blank effort, to give Canada a 2-0 lead.
Canada dominated the first period, outshooting the Swedes 15-5, controlling play with their speed and size.
Swedish forward Anton Blidh was called for roughing with 18 seconds left in the first, so Canada began the second on the power play. Nothing came of it.
Groulx started the Tri-City Americans Eric Comrie in net Sunday night. He wasn’t really tested in the first. Zach Fucale played Friday night.
McDavid, who hadn’t played since suffering a broken right hand in an OHL game on Nov. 11, was clearly shaking off some rust in the early going while Lazar played his usual intelligent game — five-on-five, on the power play and the penalty kill.
He even included a couple of mansized hits on Swedish forwards.
“It felt a little weird going out in this jersey,” Lazar said, “but we played hard for 60 minutes and got the win. The biggest adjustment was playing the wing. I was thinking a little too much out there but I think it was a good start for myself.”
As for McDavid, the soft-spoken superstar, “I thought it went pretty well.
‘We had a lot of zone time and I had some pretty good chances. It was nice to be back on the ice. I thought my legs felt pretty good. The game speed was pretty high, but overall I thought it went well.”
Sweden started to test Comrie on a power play, and Gustave Forsling’s shot from the blue-line got past the Canadian goalie, with assists going to Nylander and Adrian Kemp at 7:06 of the second.
The goal sparked Canada, which pushed back hard with McDavid’s best shift.
Just after that, Canada took a faceoff from centre ice and drove into the Swedish zone.
After a hard shot that Ward could not handle, Domi grabbed the puck and threw it into the slot to Duclair, who fired in a wrist shot.
The second period was more even, as the shot totals showed — 19 for Canada and 14 for Sweden — but on back-to-back shifts at the end of the period the McDavid and Reinhart lines turned up the heat and had the Swedes running around.
McDavid got on the scoresheet in the third when he assisted on Canada’s fourth goal by defenceman Shea Theodore.
Reinhart finished up the scoring on the power play with about six minutes left in the game.
Assists went to Hicketts and Domi.
Nylander scored Sweden’s final goal on a penalty shot with about four minutes left. He had been pulled down by a Canadian defender.
Canada faces Switzerland in its final exhibition tune-up Tuesday at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
The tournament gets underway Boxing Day when Canada faces Slovakia.