Worlds: Canada channels ‘angry’ feelings into bounce-back win
PARIS— A dynamite power play, and a little bit of attitude, got Canada back on the winning track at the world hockey championship.
Colton Parayko scored twice as Canada clinched first place in its preliminary-round group with a 5-0 win over Norway on Monday.
Both of Parayko’s goals came on the power play as Canada went 4-for-5 with the man advantage. Brayden Schenn and Ryan O’Reilly also scored with Canada a man up. Mark Scheifele added an even-strength goal.
Coming off a 3-2 overtime loss to Switzerland on Saturday, the Canadians came into Monday’s game “a little bit angry,” according to coach Jon Cooper.
“We don’t want to hear any anthem but ‘O Canada’ at the end of the games,” added forward Matt Duchene.
Duchene was part of the 2016 Ca- nadian team that dropped a 4-0 decision to Finland to close out the preliminary round before rebounding to win the gold medal.
“As soon as we lost, I went in the room and I told the boys — we’re going to win this tournament. There’s no doubt about it after losing that game to Finland.
“Hopefully it’s the same way this year. We played our best game of the tournament today. We dominated start to finish. We’re still not scoring as much 5-on-5 as we’d like. Hopefully it comes when we need it.”
After some missed early chances, Schenn and Parayko scored goals less than a minute apart late in the first period, which ultimately opened the floodgates.
“You’re sitting here thinking, ‘We’ve had a hard time scoring goals against the Swiss and the French and here now, we’re getting our chances but they’re still not going in or they’re not counting,’ ” Cooper said. “But we felt we were on top of our game and that it was just a matter of time. Thank goodness the power play was rolling.”
The Canadians play their last preliminary-round game Tuesday against Finland. The quarter-finals take place on Thursday in Paris and Cologne, Germany.