Canada 7 Swiss 1
It wasn’t the same atmosphere as 1995 when Team Canada won the World Junior Hockey Championship at the Centrium, but Thursday’s meeting between Canada and Switzerland brought back some fond memories.
“There’s a lot of memories from ’95, winning he gold medal was the main one,” said Canadian head coach Don Hay, who was behind the bench in ’95 as well.
“We won the gold medal (in the round-robin tournament) while we were in the dressing room, which was unique, but we had to go out and win to become the first team to go undefeated in the tournament, which we did, so we got to celebrate twice which was also special.”
Thursday the Canadians got to celebrate a 7-1 victory over the Swiss, but with it being a pre-competition contest to this year’s WJC, which opens Monday in Edmonton and Calgary, it wasn’t the same as in 1995.
The Canadians were full marks for the victory over the Swiss, who didn’t have the depth to handle a Canadian team expected to challenge for gold.
“It was a good game to build on,” said Hay.
“We had a great start, got a little lax in the second period and played in spurts in the third. We need to get rid of those spurts and need more consistent play.”
The teams were tied 1-1 at one point in the opening period, but overall It was a Team Canada period as they held a 24-7 edge in shots on goal and took a 3-1 lead into the dressing room.
“We were more physical and did a good job of driving to the net,” said Hay.
Swiss star Sven Bartschi said a string of three straight penalties hurt in the first period, but overall they weren’t in the game.
“There wasn’t enough room for us,” he said. “We made some big mistakes in our zone and you can’t do that against Canada. They came hard at us,”
Bartschi feels the Swiss will improve.
“I’m happy this wasn’t the start of the tournament,” he said.
“We made a lot of mistakes and we didn’t skate with them. There’s a lot of things to improve on and work on in the next two days.”
One of the stars for the Canadian side was Brandon Wheat King forward Mark Stone, who had a goal and pair of assists.
He scored the Canada’s third goal on a rebound in the slot and then made a pair of smooth passes to set up Freddie Hamilton in the second period and Devante Smith-Pelly on the power play to open the third.
“I was where I want to be, in front,” he said. “I have a big body and it’s my job to bang in the rbounds. But I also want to make plays. It’s the same as scoring.”
Stone, like his head coach, feels the Canadians haven’t reached their potential.
“I thought we were more comfortable in this being our second game, but we’re still looking at playing 60 minutes,” he said, adding the team has yet to create an identity.
“It’s still early, but we want to be a big strong, physical team that’s solid in all three zones.”
For the most part the Canadians did a good job in their zone, limiting the Swiss to 25 shots and only a few of those on the dangerous side.
And, except for a deflection by Samuel Walser at 12:58 of the first period Canadian netminder Scott Wedgewood was perfect. He made a close-in save in the second period then slid across to rob Tanner Richard late in the third for his best stops
“He didn’t have a lot of work and played well,” said Hay, who still expects to start Mark Visentin when Canada opens the tournament Monday against Finland at 1:30 p.m. in Edmonton.
Smith-Pelly opened the scoring on the power play at 9:28 of the first period before Walser tied it. However, Boone Jenner and Stone connected before the end of the period.
Hamilton connected in the second with Smith-Pelly, Tanner Pearson and Ryan Strome scoring in the third.
The Canadians finished with 51 shots on Swiss goalie Tim Wolf, who kept the game as close as it was.
The Swiss took eight of 12 penalties.
“I liked the two goals we got on the power play, but we still can do a better job of establishing more shots on goal and getting inside more,” said Hay.
drode@www.reddeeradvocate.com