🇨🇦 Canada 6-0 Czechia 🇨🇿
World Cup Of Hockey Group Round
Air Canada Centre, Toronto 🇨🇦
Saturday, 17 September 2016

Canada defeated the Czech Republic 6-0 in its first game of the 2016 World Cup of Hockey at Air Canada Centre on Saturday.

Canada and captain Sidney Crosby picked up right where they left off in the last best-on-best tournament.

Crosby, playing with forwards Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, had a goal and two assists, turning in the same type of dominating performance that marked his play during the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Canada defeated Sweden for the Gold medal in that tournament, when it allowed three goals and scored 16 in six games.

Crosby’s showing for Canada in its Group A opener came 95 days after he won the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, when his Pittsburgh Penguins won the championship in six games.

“I feel good,” Crosby said. “The fact that I played late into June and you’re stepping into this level, I think that helps kind of with adjusting, and I think that finding chemistry with us as a line early has helped.

“With our team, we have so much speed and so much depth, I think that if we get things rolling, everyone kind of helps each other.”

Lost among the Canada offence was a great comeback performance by goalie Carey Price, who made 27 saves in his first competitive game since he injured his knee 25 November playing for the Montréal Canadiens.

Price was the Canada goalie in Sochi and stopped 113 of 119 shots in that tournament, earning the best goalie award. He said that Saturday felt very similar to the team he watched in front of him there.

“Obviously, the ice is different, so everything happens a little bit quicker,” Price said of the NHL dimensions. “There’s less time for our guys to hold on to the puck, but I thought our guys showed a lot of poise, made it really difficult for them to come up the ice, and that’s the type of hockey that we play.

“We make it hard to get on the offensive side of us and make it really difficult to come up the ice. Our puck pursuit was relentless all night. I think that’s what provided the result that we got.”

After an even start, Crosby turned the game on its head with a dominating 12 minutes. He scored the first goal at 8:26, banking a shot off goalie Michal Neuvirth.

Marchand scored at 17:08, deflecting a shot from Brent Burns after Crosby won the faceoff to start the play. Bergeron scored with less than one second left in the first period, with Crosby serving as a screen, to make it 3-0.

“It’s easy to play when it is a 3-0 hockey game,” Czech Republic forward Martin Hanzal said. “After that, they were playing the game they wanted, and that was the result.”

Joe Thornton scored at 7:22 of the second period by shoveling the puck into the net after a slap pass from Crosby temporarily froze the Czech Republic defence and Neuvirth.

Forward Jonathan Toews and defenceman Alex Pietrangelo each scored a power-play goal.

NOTES: Czech Republic centre Radek Faksa did not play in the final two periods…Canada scratched right wing Claude Giroux, defenceman Jake Muzzin and goalie Braden Holtby. Czech Republic scratched left wing Michal Birner, defenceman Tomáš Kundrátek and goalie Ondřej Pavelec.

BOXSCORE
1st Period
01:40 – 🇨🇿 PEN – Šustr, slashing
01:55 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Stamkos, holding
03:35 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Marchand, hooking
08:26 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – Crosby (Marchand, Stamkos)
17:08 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – Burns (Crosby, Bergeron)
19:59 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – Bergeron (Marchand)

2nd Period
23:14 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Bouwmeester, interference
27:22 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – Thornton (Crosby, Duchene)
27:57 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Burns, tripping
32:51 – 🇨🇿 PEN – Z. Michálek, hooking
34:45 – 🇨🇦 PP GOAL – Toews (Getzlaf, Tavares)

3rd Period
42:14 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Getzlaf, holding
47:01 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Duchene, hooking
51:32 – 🇨🇿 PEN – Nakládal, holding
52:41 – 🇨🇦 PP GOAL – Pietrangelo (Doughty, Tavares)

GOALTENDERS
W: 🇨🇦 Price (27-27)
L: 🇨🇿 Neuvirth (44-50)

SHOTS ON GOAL
🇨🇦 14+21+15 = 50
🇨🇿 12+7+8 = 27

ROSTERS
🇨🇦 Goaltenders: Corey Crawford, Carey Price. Defence: Jay Bouwmeester, Brent Burns, Drew Doughty, Alex Pietrangelo, Marc-Édouard Vlasic, Shea Weber (A). Forwards: Patrice Bergeron, Logan Couture, Sidney Crosby (C), Matt Duchene, Ryan Getzlaf, Brad Marchand, Ryan O’Reilly, Corey Perry, Steven Stamkos, John Tavares, Joe Thornton, Jonathan Toews (A).
🇨🇿 Goaltenders: Petr Mrázek, Michal Neuvirth. Defence: Michal Jordán, Michal Kempný, Zbyněk Michálek, Jakub Nakládal, Roman Polák, Andrej Šustr. Forwards: Roman Červenka, Radek Faksa, Michael Frolík, Martin Hanzal, Aleš Hemský (A), Dmitrij Jaškin, Milan Michálek, Ondřej Palát, David Pastrňák, Tomáš Plekanec (C), Vladimír Sobotka, Jakub Voráček (A).

Article Credit: NHL
Photo Credit: NHLPA – IIHF – HHOF – IOC