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Canada back on track

Norway couldn’t contain speed, lose 5-0

Published 15.05.2017 20:13 GMT+2 | Author Andrew Podnieks
Canada back on track
PARIS, FRANCE - MAY 15: Canada's Brayden Schenn #10 scores against Norway while his teammate Jeff Skinner #53 and Norway's Dennis Sveum #14 and Alexander Bonsaksen #47 look on during preliminary round action at the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. (Photo by Matt Zambonin/HHOF-IIHF Images)
Canada made a full and impressive recovery from its overtime loss to the Swiss two days ago, pouring on the pressure and defeating Norway handily.

Tonight it was the power play that led the way, scoring four of the five goals. Defenceman Colton Parayko counted two of those, while Nate MacKinnon added three assists.

"I thought we did a good job of putting pucks toward the net," Parayko said. "We got good screens, and I thought we moved the puck around really well."

Chad Johnson earned the easy shutout, stopping only ten shots (eight in the first, two in the second, and none in the third).

"I thought we dominated," MacKinnon offered. "I thought we deserved it. We really outplayed the Swiss pretty bad, even in a loss. There were a couple of tough breaks. But today we deserved the win and we played really well."

"We just wanted to play a strong game for ourselves after the loss we had against Switzerland," Wayne Simmonds said. "I thought we did a solid job tonight. We got up 2-0 again tonight and just kept it going and got a few more."

The win puts Canada back on top of the Group B standings, but as significantly the loss eliminates Norway from the quarter-finals. It can now finish no higher than fifth in the group.

"It’s Team Canada," said Anders Bastiansen. "We knew they were going to spend a lot of time in our zone. I don’t think we were aggressive enough in our own end. We gave them too much time in the beginning. Our goalie did a great job and kept us in pretty much the whole game. We were just not good enough."

Canada got off to a bit of a strange start. Ryan O’Reilly was awarded a penalty shot at 1:52 and fired high over the net, and at 4:39 Wayne Simmonds scored a nice goal only to have it waived off because the net was clearly off its moorings well before the puck crossed the goal line.

It wasn’t until 17:48 on a power play that Canada got one that counted. Brayden Schenn got to a rebound first and popped the puck in after Chris Lee’s point shot started the play.

Just 54 seconds later, on another power play, Colton Parayko wired a point shot that went all the way, beating Henrik Haukeland to the glove side.

Mark Scheifele added to the lead at 14:57 of the second, also on a rebound. Haukeland had trouble with a bouncing puck, and Scheifele had no trouble sweeping the loose puck in.

Parayko scored his second of the night on a virtually identical play to his first. On a power play, he stepped into a point shot and beat the goalie clean, this time over the shoulder.

O'Reilly made up for his penalty-shot miss by scoring on a one-timer from in close off a Scheifele pass on the power play at 17:20 of the third.

Canada finishes its round robin tomorrow with a late game against Finland. Norway plays the early game against Belarus.

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