Canada edges Slovakia 2 1 in shootout to remain unbeaten at world hockey championship

Jack Quinn scored the winning goal in the eighth round of a shootout as Canada overcame a toothless power play to defeat Slovakia 2-1 Monday at the world hockey championship.

Canada goaltender Sam Montembeault clinched the win by stopping Martin Chromiak on Slovakia’s final shootout attempt.

``It is a little bit nerve-racking, and shootouts are not usually the best part of my game,’’ Montembeault said. ``It’s a one-on-one situation and you never know what could happen, but I know I needed to do my part.

``We got a big goal (from Quinn) and I just needed to make the last save.’’

Jake Neighbours scored in regulation for Canada just after a slashing penalty to Slovakia’s Richard Panik expired.

Canada leads Group A with eight points (two regulation wins, one overtime win) in three games.

Peter Cehlarik scored for Slovakia with Milan Lucic in the penalty box for holding.

Canada was 0-for-8 on the power play, including two 5-and3 opportunities and a five-minute major to Libor Hudacek for boarding.

``We need to do some fine-tuning on the power play because we were forcing plays today, but I thought our five-on-five play was solid,’’ Canada head coach Andre Tourigny said.

``We did not give (Slovakia) much to work with aside from a few minor breakdowns, and I like the way our game is progressing.’’

Slovakia, which is fourth in the group with four points (one win, one loss, one overtime loss), was 1-for-9 with the man advantage.

Montembeault made 23 saves for Canada in regulation and overtime.

Samuel Hlavaj made 42 stops for Slovakia.

Canada returns to action Wednesday against Kazakhstan.