Canada Shuts Out Slovaks to Stay Perfect

Canada has taken sole possession of first place in Group A after a 6-0 victory over Slovakia on Wednesday night in Buffalo. 

Canada was strong off of the first faceoff, taking a 15-6 shot advantage into the first intermission. It all paid off with the game's first goal, when, at 3:39, Sam Steel picked up the rebound off of a Cale Makar shot, picking it up to the right of the Slovak net before sending it home.

On the very next shift, Canada thought they scored again. The puck was passed out to the blueline, where Dante Fabbro barely allowed the puck to cross the blue line. The puck did just creep over, meaning the goal would be waved off after the play was deemed offside.

Canada wasted no time putting up more goals in the second, scoring two goals by the time the period was eight minutes old. At 1:24, Jordan Kyrou took Victor Mete's pass and danced around a couple of Slovaks, making a beautiful move before beating Hrenak to make it 2-0.

Then, just four minutes later, Canada's fourth line struck again after a good opening game against Finland. Jonah Gadjovich would use his last burst of energy to take Makar's rebound and reach around Hrenak, backhanding it over the Slovak netminder before giving Canada the 3-0 lead.

Canada had a bit of a scare earlier in their game when Jake Bean left the game with an injury, considering Kale Clague was out of the lineup after injuring his foot against Finland on Tuesday. Bean returned just in time to see fellow vegetable Taylor Raddysh pick up his own rebound at 30:33, giving Canada their second power play marker of the game to make it 4-0 for the team in red. 

Many people questioned Maxime Comtois being named to the team in the first place, but he made an effort to prove why he was chosen to the team. With five minutes left, the Anaheim Ducks prospect sent a wicked backhander over Hrenak, giving Canada the 5-0 lead on their 50th shot. Slovakia had no way of answering Canada's dominance, and Gadjovich would put the puck in the net one more time to help hand the reigning silver-medalists their second win of the tournament.

Slovakia won't waste much time as they'll play the United States on Thursday at 8:00 PM at the KeyBank Center, with the Slovaks in search of their first win of the tournament. Canada will wait until Friday when they battle USA in the first outdoor game in the history of the World Juniors, a 3:00 PM start at New Era Field.

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