Canada 9 France 1
KOSICE, Slovakia — The ingredients all seem to be in place to make Canada a top contender at the IIHF World Hockey Championship.
Unlike other countries with golden aspirations, the Canadians have had no trouble with weaker opposition early in the event. The victim Sunday was an overmatched France team that couldn’t handle a balanced offensive attack in losing 9-1.
The goals came from all four lines and three different defencemen.
“Pretty much everybody on every line can score,” said Canadian captain Rick Nash.
It’s shown in convincing victories over Belarus and France that came by a combined count of 13-2. Those have been the most dominant performances by any team at a tournament that has already seen Sweden lose to Norway and Russia fall to Germany.
Arguably the most important element of Canada’s solid start can’t be measured by statistics.
“This is a group of guys that I think will have a lot of success based on our camaraderie,” said goalie James Reimer, who made 22 saves against France. “I think within one or two days — it didn’t take very long — everyone was buds and hanging out and enjoying the time over here together. I think that’s one of our strong points.
“We’re a good team right now and it’s kind of showing on the ice.”
Even the newcomers have fit in quickly.
Defenceman Marc-Andre Gragnani opened scoring on a power play in his first ever shift at the tournament while James Neal chipped in with an assist after enduring an arduous journey to Slovakia that came on the heels of a tough Game 7 loss by his Pittsburgh Penguins earlier in the week.
He had to pause for a moment before recouting his trip.
“I went through Pittsburgh to Minnesota, Minnesota to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Prague, Prague to here,” said Neal. “Some solid layovers. Tough road to get here.”
There is an unmistakable confidence among the Canadians.
Jeff Skinner — the youngest player in the entire tournament — scored two more goals Sunday to grab the early scoring lead with five points. The other scorers were Nash, Gragnani, Jason Spezza, Chris Stewart, Alex Pietrangelo, Brent Burns and Travis Zajac.
“This is a group that really enjoys each other’s company,” said Canadian coach Ken Hitchcock. “There’s a great almost instant chemistry. I don’t know if that’s because of the age with everybody or whatever but it’s a very, very cohesive team off the ice right now. I think it’s helping us on the ice.”
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare replied with France’s first goal of the tournament.
Canada scored early and often to chase Cristobal Huet from the net after just one period. Gragnani buried a wrist shot on his first shift of the tournament at 1:02 on a power play before Spezza and Skinner both struck to make it 3-0 after 20 minutes.
“When goal-scorers are scoring, it’s a good sign,” said Gragnani. “Regardless who the opposition team is, a goal is still a goal and it gives us a lot of confidence going forward through the tournament.”
Reimer had to be fairly sharp in the early going as France had a couple dangerous chances, including a breakaway by captain Laurent Meunier.
His shutout bid was ended on a nice shot by Bellemare at 9:14 of the second period on a power play — one of four in row France received during the middle frame.
Veteran French goaltender Fabrice L’Henry had some initial success after entering the game, but couldn’t keep Canada off the scoreboard for long. Stewart made it 4-1 off a goal-mouth scramble at 16:06 and Pietrangelo extended the lead just 43 seconds later.
“We’re a team right now that has a lot of fun pressing the attack, we’re having a lot of fun pushing the pace,” said Hitchcock.
“We feel like we’ve got depth, we feel like we can wear teams out if we keep playing this way. So far we’ve been able to do that.”
In the third period, Nash set up Burns and scored with a nice individual effort to give him another piece of history at this event. He now has 41 career world championship points, moving past Steve Yzerman into second place behind Dany Heatley’s 62 points.
“Any time you even get a chance to play with Team Canada it’s special,” said Nash. “To have a little bit of success and get a lot of points, it’s fun. But the gold medal and two silver medals mean a lot more than the points.”
Skinner’s second goal of the game came on a penalty shot before Zajac got the grind line on the scoresheet with a little over two minutes to play.
Once the game was out of reach in the third period, Hitchcock sent backup goalie Devan Dubnyk in for his first work of the tournament. He stopped eight shots in almost 14 minutes of action.
The coach plans to go back to Reimer when Canada gets its toughest test yet against Switzerland on Tuesday.
“I like his game — he’s really competitive,” Hitchcock said of Reimer.
“He seeks out every puck, he looks around people, he looks through people, he fights for vision every time.
“He reminds me of that old group of goalies, you know, the (Ed) Belfour and (Andy) Moog kind of guys. They fight like crazy.”
Notes: Pietrangelo received the most ice time for Canada with 20:39 ... Meunier had the most shots in the game with five ... Canadian defenceman Carlo Colaiacovo and goalie Jonathan Bernier watched from the stands after arriving from North America ... France coach Dave Henderson gave his son Brian 8:47 of ice time ... Announced attendance at Steel Arena was 4,457.