France no problem for Canada

01 May 2011 | Henrik Lundqvist

Youngster Jeff Skinner, born 1992, scores twice when Canada beats France 9-1 in Kosice.

Canada got a perfect start of the game against France. Marc-Andre Gragnani scored 1-0 at 1:02 of the first power-play of the game. Jason Spezza added 2-0 and Jeff Skinner 3-0 before the first period had ended.

"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 the Canadian coach Ken 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."

France switched goalies after the first period. Cristobal Huet left the net for Fabrice Lhenry.

In the second period the French team out-shot the Canadian 12-10 and also got a 3-1 goal in the middle of the period when Pierr Edouard Bellemare scored on a power-play. But Canada replied with two quick goals in the 37th minute. Chris Stewart scored 4-1 and then Alex Pietrangelo 5-1.

The third period was easy for Canada who won it 4-0. Brent Burns scored 6-1 on a power-play and Rick Nash got the 7-1 goal.

At 46:10 also Canada switched goalies. Devan Dubnyk entered instead of James Reimer.

Young Jeff Skinner scored 8-1 on a penalty shot and with a little more than two minutes remaining Travis Zajac finalized the score 9-1.

"Pretty much everybody on every line can score," said Canadian captain Rick Nash about the many goals.

France had 33 shots on goal (Canada 39) but the big difference was the finishing and the goalies.

Canada has started the Championship with two wins while France has earned one point in the two first games.