Canada stays perfect at worlds

CANADA 8 BELARUS 0

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Matt Duchene says opponents always bring their best when they face Canada at the world hockey championship.

So far the defending champions have been able to respond to the challenge, even if it takes them a while to get going.

Buffalo Sabres forward Ryan O’Reilly scored twice Monday as Canada improved to 3-0 at this year’s championship with an 8-0 rout of Belarus.

Playing their third game in four days, the Canadians followed a similar pattern to previous wins over the United States and Hungary. Canada allowed Belarus to keep the score close through 20 minutes before breaking the game open with four second-period goals.

“We’re going to get every team’s best game,” said Duchene, who had a goal and two assists against Belarus and is tied for the team lead with five points. “The kid yesterday on Hungary that scored picked up the puck. That kind of tells you what it means to score against us and what it means to play against us. So we’re going to get everybody’s top game right off the bat and it’s all about just staying patient, weathering the storm, and then once we get one or two, we’re going from there.”

The Canadians once again deployed a balanced attack, with seven different players scoring in all situations.

O’Reilly’s first goal of the tournament came from a secondperiod short-handed marker that was ruled to have deflected into the net off his skate following a pass from Boone Jenner. The second was an own goal off the skate of a Belarusian defender at 1:26 of the third.

Corey Perry, Taylor Hall and Mark Stone contributed at even strength while Derick Brassard, Duchene and Michael Matheson all scored with the man advantage as the Canadian power play went 3-for-5, rewarding coach Bill Peters for showing patience with his special teams.

“We talked about making some adjustments,” said Peters of a power play that had gone 1-for-10 in Canada’s first two games. “We felt we gained a little bit of momentum in the last game, we left them together and I think that familiarity paid off.”

Cam Talbot was perfect in goal for Canada, making 13 saves for his first shutout.

Canada has now outscored its opponents 20-2 in three games and sits at the top of the Group B standings with nine points along with Finland, which beat the Americans 3-2 Monday. Slovakia, at 2-0, will face Germany today.