Photo Credit: Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports
Patrick Sharp and Carey Price sat during today’s game against Team Austria while Matt Duchene was placed on a line with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. Roberto Luongo was in net to defend against Michael Grabner, who was coming off a 3-goal game against Finland yesterday. In order for Team Canada to be successful, I was hoping they could gain control and keep it simple in the game against Austria.
By the end of the first period, I was starting to wonder if this was the same Team Canada men’s group that played against Norway yesterday. They were focused through the entire first period and came out strong. Drew Doughty opened the scoring and built momentum for his team. Not long afterwards, Shea Weber picked up a drop-pass from Corey Perry and his slapper from the point found the back of the Austrian net. Sidney Crosby proved why he is consistently given the “C” on his jersey as he helped set up his teammate’s plays and motivated the rest of the team to keep moving along the large ice surface. Team Canada’s offensive lines were solid and powerful.
The intensity was amped up in the second period for the Canadians as Jeff Carter scored his first goal of the game, a rebound shot from a feed by Crosby to Marleau. And then Carter scored another. And another to make a natural hat-trick look easy. After being taken down in front of the Austrian net, Corey Perry got a chance to score with a penalty shot but failed to capitalize. Team Canada was then on the defensive when Jamie Benn‘s stick hit an Austrian player in the face and drew blood. Ryan Getlaf picked up the puck and walked through the Austrian defense to score a beautiful short-handed goal.
The third period was evened out a bit more as the Austrian players fought back in the last frame. But it wasn’t quite enough to get one past Luongo. Team Canada took the shutout over Team Austria in a 6-0 win.
Go Team Canada!