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Canada slaughters Slovaks
Canada slaughters Slovaks
Three-goal first period sets hosts up for easy win
MONTREAL, CANADA - DECEMBER 26: Canada's Robby Fabbri #29 gets to puck past Slovakia's Denis Godla #30 to score Team Canada's third goal of the game during preliminary round action at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship. (Photo by Richard Wolowicz/HHOF-IIHF Images)
Fabbri notched two first-period goals and added a couple of assists in the second period. Meanwhile, Nic Petan had a goal and two assists, while Anthony Duclair, Max Domi, Brayden Point, and Jake Virtanen each tallied a goal and an assist. Nick Paul chipped in a single, whilen Sam Reinhart and Madison Bowey earned a pair of helpers apiece.
"Getting the first game under the belt always feels good," said Fabbri. "Points are one thing, but the way the team played throughout the whole game, seeing where we’re headed, sticking to our game, it was good to see and good to get the win."
Overall, it was a balanced attack, as 11 different Canadians hit the scoresheet. It was control, it was finesse, and it was also quite methodical.
"We had a lot of goal-scorers tonight and that’s what we’re going to need moving forward," said Canadian captain Curtis Lazar.
Goalie Zach Fucale, who also served as the starter for Canada’s 2014 fourth-place team with a 2.42 GAA, got the win versus Slovakia’s Denis Godla, who made his tournament debut but was pulled halfway through.
It was Fucale’s first career World Junior shutout. Shots on goal were 34-12 for Canada, reflecting its dominance in all three zones.
"We were hungry off the get-go, and that’s what we need," Lazar said. "We used the excitement and adrenalin the fans gave us to get off to a quick start, and we’ve just got to keep building from there."
At least on this night, Slovakia had about as much of a chance against Canada as a Montreal smoked meat sandwich has against a polar bear.
Continue reading"It’s not easy," said Slovak captain Martin Reway. "We didn’t want to lose, but they have a very good team this year. They’re playing at home, so it’s difficult for us, and the atmosphere was with them."
This was the kind of start that coach Benoit Groulx’s boys needed to send the fans home happy in their opener at the Bell Centre. The Canadians are eager to end their gold-medal drought at this tournament. Canada, the perennial favourite, hasn’t triumphed since Ottawa 2009.
The 18-year-old Fabbri, a 2014 first-round pick of the St. Louis Blues, was named this year’s OHL playoff MVP with 28 points in 16 games for the league champion Guelph Storm, and it wasn’t hard to see why here.
Canada got the party started at 4:52 on a slick three-way passing play. Duclair fed the puck to Reinhart on the rush, who dished a backhand to Fabbri, and he zipped it past a helpess Godla.
At 8:17, it was 2-0 when Domi controlled the puck along the side boards and then sent a perfect pass in front to Duclair, who had time to stickhandle and deke to the backhand before putting it home.
Just 52 seconds later, Petan found a streaking Fabbri in front of the Slovak net and he made no mistake. Canada now had three goals on just five shots.
"Nic Petan is just so easy to play with," said Fabbri. "He’s a special player, so skilled, and he works really hard. It’s easy to feed off him."
Slovak coach Ernest Bokros called his time-out to regroup his troops. But it was too late. The game was already lost.
At 6:56 of the second period, Paul parked himself on the edge of the Slovak crease and shoveled in the rebound from a Virtanen wraparound attempt to make it 4-0.
With a neat flip pass on the rush, Petan set up Point’s 5-0 one-timer from the slot at 11:35. That was it for Godla, who was replaced by David Okolicany after facing 23 shots.
Domi put Canada up 6-0 when the London Knights captain darted into the Slovak zone, cut to the slot, and whizzed a wrister high to the glove side with 3:46 left in the second.
"Reinhart gave me another great pass as usual, and I just cut back," said Domi. "I was pretty tired so I just shot it and it went in."
With the teams playing 4-on-4, Petan made it 7-0 just over a minute later, dipsy-doodling along the goal line before beating Okolicany on the short side with a lightning release.
Virtanen rounded out the scoring at 8-0 with 3:19 remaining in the third, poking in a Point rebound that came off the back boards.
"We’re going to take pride in every goal we had tonight, because we worked for them," said Domi.
The last time Canada didn’t win its first game at the World Juniors was a 0-0 tie with Slovakia in Winnipeg on December 27, 1998. Canada last lost an opener to Finland in Helsinki on December 25, 1997.
This was far from Canada's most lopsided shutout victory in U20 history. That was a 16-0 win over Latvia on December 26, 2009 in Saskatoon.
Neither of these teams has much time to rest. The Slovaks face Finland in Saturday’s first game at the Bell Centre (16:00), while Canada takes on Germany later (20:00).
"The coach did a good job of letting us know it’s only one game in the tournament and we have another game tomorrow night," said Fabbri. "We have to play the exact same way."
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