Canada secures quarterfinal ticket

After two defeats against Germany and Belarus the Slovaks got themselves into a tricky situation. To have a solid chance at still making the quarterfinals, they had to beat Canada or Finland now. But those teams have their mind set on winning the group and won't give up anything for free.

Three minutes into the game Slovakia got its first chance to go ahead when Mark Stone was sent to the penalty box for interference. But Canada survived the powerplay due to a very disciplined defense, which should become the theme of the game. Afterwards the Canadians controlled the match. At the 11:09 minute mark Morgan Rielly got Canada in front. Derick Brassard won the face-off and Rielly blasted a shot past Julius Hudacek from the blue line.

With 90 seconds left before the first intermission, Brad Marchand won a puck behind the Slovakian goal, passed it back in the slot to Matt Duchene and he could light the lamp a second time for Canada with a precise shot right under the cross bar. With the 2-0 Canada had already marked its territory after one period.

The biggest scoring chance for Slovakia came 5 minutes into the second period when a lucky bounce found Vladimir Dravecky all alone in front of an open net, but Cam Talbot managed to get back in time with a spectacular jump to force Dravecky to aim for the cross bar and rob him of the goal.

Despite the Slovaks starting to take part more in the game now, it was again Canada's time to score. On a powerplay Connor McDavid sent a cross ice pass over to Mark Stone, who had enough time to wait and aim. Finally his shot was deflected into the net by Taylor Hall for the 3-0.

Next up in the Canadian skills competition was Mark Scheifele. With 2 minutes to go in the second period he missed his initial shot, but got the puck back on the same shift from Sam Reinhart. He then pulled the puck back around his opponent just to get an acurate shot out while being taken off his skates. The puck found the very tiny gap in between a Slovak defender and the goalie. The goal set the score to 4-0 before the last period.

Brassard took over the spotlight midway through the third period when he tipped in a pass from Corey Perry to make it 5-0. It was also the last curtain as it marked the final score.

Canada can now plan for the quarterfinal, while Slovakia will be under big pressure against Finland tomorrow.

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