Without too much difficulty, Canada enforced logic at the World Hockey Championship by beating Italy 6-1 early Sunday morning in Finland.
The underdogs still created a shockwave by being the first to flash the red light. Phil Pietroniro then surprised goaltender Chris Driedger, who ultimately only faced 12 shots in the entire game, blocking 11 of them.
“Sometimes when you play against Italy, you don’t really know what to expect,” said Barzal, whose comments were echoed by the IIHF website. They came out strong. They made it difficult for us to score, but I think we made changes that helped us.”
Despite this misstep, Claude Julien’s men retired to the locker room with a 1-1 tie, thanks to a throw from Travis Sanheim. However, they took off in the second period.
Montreal Canadiens forward Josh Anderson is the one who started a three-goal push for his side in the middle frame. The 28-year-old athlete, who was also an accomplice to the first goal of the Canadians, redirected a shot completely off the target of Dysin Mayo.
“We only had a few practices, but there was a chemistry between the three of us as soon as we got together,” said Anderson, who forms a line with Cole Sillinger and Adam Lowry. We’re all doing what we do best and that helps the team create scoring chances. We also take great pride in our defensive play. We are very confident at the moment and it can only get better.”
Nicolas Roy and Kent Johnson also got the better of goalkeeper Justin Fazio before the end of the period, while Mayo and Noah Gregor completed the scoring in the final period.
It is therefore an ideal start to this edition of the World Championship for Canada, which has two victories in as many games, which earns it first place in Group A. The representatives of the maple leaf will not have besides, not much time to rest, they who will be back on the ice on Monday, against Slovakia.