Canada easily defeated Germany 5-1 in its first men’s hockey preliminary round game at the Beijing Olympics on Thursday, but that wasn’t the only good news of the day awaiting the team.
Minutes before the game, Hockey Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) announced that head coach Claude Julien will return to his position for the team’s second game, scheduled for Saturday against the United States.
Julien fractured his ribs after a fall at the team’s training camp in Davos, Switzerland. Hockey Canada then announced that the coach had to forfeit the Games.
Assistant coach Jeremy Colliton had been named to replace Julien. He will resume his role as assistant upon the return of the Franco-Ontarian.
“We’re here for the same reasons,” Colliton said. When a man with his background comes back, it only strengthens our coaching staff.
The former Montreal Canadiens coach was spotted in the stands during Thursday night’s game. He was able to observe the good performance of his team, led by the two points, a goal and an assist, from Ben Street.
Alex Grant, Daniel Winnik, Maxim Noreau and Jordan Weal also scored in the first game of the tournament for both teams. Eric O’Dell and Kent Johnson both had two assists, while Edward Pasquale made 23 saves.
Tobias Rieder was the lone scorer for Germany, which surprised the Canadians in the semifinals at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. Like in Beijing, the NHL players were absent from the tournament in South Korea.
“It was tough for the guys that were there,” said O’Dell, who is one of three players who were on Canada’s roster in 2018.
“We played a good game, and it’s not just because we wanted revenge,” Noreau said. With the whole COVID-19 situation, it was nice to be able to focus on hockey today.”
Mathias Niederberger stopped 22 shots in front of the German goal.
Canada took the lead at 4:43 of the first period. O’Dell caused a turnaround behind the net when he served a hard-hitting check on German defender Marco Nowak.
“It’s good to get guys motivated early in the game,” O’Dell said.
Johnson and Street quickly exchanged the disc, then Grant completed the maneuver with a precise wrist shot into the top of the net.
Two quick goals then made it 3-0 midway through the first period. First Grant doubled the lead with a one-timer from the circle to Niederberger’s right, then Winnik redirected a perfect pass from Adam Cracknell behind the keeper just 32 seconds later.
The Germans picked up the pace in the second period, so they got on the scoreboard at 10:45. Rieder jumped on a rebound from Leonhard Pfoderl to close the gap to two goals.
The Canadian team, however, responded two minutes later during a power play. Captain Eric Staal won the faceoff, before the puck landed on Noreau’s stick at the point. The Quebecer placed the puck just to the right of Niederberger’s shield.
Weal completed the scoring in the third period with a shot from the slot, while he was closely watched by three opponents.
“We were ready,” Staal said. We’ve been preparing for a long time.”
In the only other match on the schedule in Group A, the United States beat China 8-0. Canada will face these two teams this weekend: the United States on Saturday and China on Sunday.
In Group C, Sweden defeated Latvia 3-2, while Finland beat Slovakia 6-2.