WJC Canada Postgame: Canada takes care of business in dominant showing against Slovakia

Not sure if Team Canada is for real this year? Well, there you go. The Canadians laid an absolute beating on Slovakia Tuesday night at the Air Canada Centre. They won 5-0, peppering the Slovaks with 44 shots for while surrendering only six against en route to their second win of the tournament. 

Slovakia and Canada came out of the first period deadlocked at 0-0 but it was very clear that wasn’t going to last long. Canada heavily outshot and outplayed the Slovakians, who, despite having fresh legs, struggled to keep up with the four lines of speed and skill that Canada boasted. Finally, five minutes into the second, Canada broke through, as Jeremy Lauzon burned a pass from Tyson Jost in the slot to make it 1-0. 

After that, the floodgates were busted open. Canada scored three goals within a span of just over six minutes to give them a 4-0 lead. The love was spread around nicely for the Canadians, as four different players collected goals during their second period onslaught. 

Then, in the third period, Canada added another one when Michael McLeod drove to the net and tapped in pass from Anthony Cirelli to ice the game, 5-0. 

To be honest, that score, despite it being fairly lopsided, could have been much worse for Slovakia. Before the game, there was some concern that Canada, having played a tight game with Russia just 24 hours ago, could come out flat against a Slovak team playing its first game of the tournament. 

But that wasn’t the case. Canada pounded Slovakia from beginning to end, never easing up on the gas pedal. Wave after wave they put pressure on Slovakia, peppering New York Rangers prospect Adam Huska with 44 shots while keeping Slovakia to just six. For whatever reason, Huska wasn’t given player of the game for his effort. Hopefully his teammates take him out for dinner or something as compensation. 

Connor Ingram, Canada’s backup goalie who was given the net in order to give Carter Hart a break, managed a shutout despite spending most of the night watching the game like the rest of us. The only time he faced any pressure was when Slovakia took a penalty and he had to skate to the net. 

Thomas Chabot, who picked up and a goal and as assist, took home Player of the Game honours for Canada. But honestly, it could have been pretty much anyone. This was a start to finish, up and down dominant performance from the Canadians. This clip pretty much sums it all up:

Canada will have a day off Wednesday before playing Latvia on Thursday at 8:00 p.m. ET. Then they’ll have another off day before finishing group play against the United States on New Year’s Eve.