I was more impressed by the game than these guys seem to be... (Top to bottom, left to right: Cam Ward, Jordan Eberle, Duncan Keith and Ryan Murray. photo: screenshots/tsn.ca)
Canada’s trip through the preliminary round is off to a great start now that they’ve won their first game against Slovakia.
While neither team had many scoring chances in the first period, it was Canada who got the lead in the opening frame when Jamie Benn took captain Ryan Getzlaf’s backhand pass and put it past Peter Hamerlik. The goal came at 14:21 and the score remained 1-0 until early in the second when Ryan Murray, the newest d-man for Team Canada, gave the puck away and Slovakia took advantage. Juraj Mikus made his way to the corner before giving the puck to Tomas Tatar, who beat Cam Ward to tie the game.
After the game picked up, it was Jordan Eberle who gave Canada the lead once again.
His quick shot from a bad angle managed to get past Hamerlik and trickle into the net just over halfway through the second. Next, it was Andrew Ladd who extended Canada’s lead to two when his shot went over Hamerlik’s shoulder and found the back of the net. Just before the halfway mark, Alex Burrows collided with Marcel Hascak and seemed to have hit his head on the ice. One of his teammates said they thought it was a concussion, and GM Kevin Lowe said it was a ‘real high’ upper body injury. In his first game ever donning a Team Canada jersey, Burrows joined the group of injured players; now it consists of him along with P.K. Subban and Marc Methot.
Early in the third period, Slovakia repeated their earlier play that lead to the goal, just this time with different players. Mario Bliznak’s pass from the corner found Milan Bartovic, whose shot made it through the traffic in front of the net before getting past Cam Ward to put the Slovaks within one.
With one minute left in the game, Hamerlik was pulled, but the score remained 3-2 until the final buzzer went.
Evander Kane and Andrew Ladd are the first Winnipeg Jets players to visit the World Championships since 1995, and this was Cam Ward’s first time starting a game for Canada since the gold medal game in 2008. Canada hasn’t won the opening game of the Championship since 1978, but they’ve beaten Slovakia six times in a row.
They play Team USA tomorrow at 9 a.m. Pacific/10 a.m. Mountain Time.
