2005 WORLD JR. HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP - Dec. 25 - Jan. 4, 2005

[BOREALIS]

Canada 7 , Slovakia 3 ~ played Dec. 25

Posted on Sun, Dec. 26, 2004


Despite some struggles, Canadians roll past Slovakia

By Tim Campbell
Winnipeg Free Press


While Canadians everywhere were busy dissecting every ice shaving of Team Canada's 7-3 romp over Slovakia on Christmas Day, one native son was already fitting the victory into the big picture of hockey's World Junior Championship.

"At the end of the night it's a win," Canada head coach Brent Sutter said after his team got off to a positive start in its bid to recapture gold-medal status that it hasn't had since 1997. "But you look at some of the negatives and it's a little bit of adversity and it's how you deal with it.

"We're going to have some along the way. Everything's not going to be a great ride every shift of every period of every game. It's how you respond, when you have a bad shift, on the next shift."

That Team Canada allowed the Slovakians three goals and the game was 5-3 at one point in the third period at Ralph Engelstad Arena might have provided a few unnerving moments. But killing a late pair of penalties that overlapped into a 78-second 5-on-3 for Slovakia helped Canada jog to the final buzzer, adding a pair of late goals by Clarke MacArthur for punctuation.

"It's not like we played all that bad either," Sutter said. "I think expectations are ... you guys are looking at January and right now I'm looking at December 25."

Canada's next opponent is Sweden on Monday in Grand Forks. Before 7,540 fans Saturday, Sidney Crosby, Patrice Bergeron and MacArthur provided pairs for Canada, while Jeff Carter had a single. Canada was ahead 4-0 by the game's halfway point.

"When you get up 4-0, it's easy to make bad plays or mental errors," said Crosby, who scored both goals during power plays, each with soft hands near the net. "We did that a couple of times, but we're going to learn from that. We realize you can't get into bad habits in a short tournament like this.

"We got into some penalty trouble and whenever that happens, usually the momentum changes."

Canada had three penalties in a short span in the second period, opening the door for Marek Zagrapan and Stanislav Lascek to get Slovakia on the board. But once Peter Olvecky made it 5-3 early in the third, the Canadians pressed back down on the accelerator.

"It's nice to get the first one done and with a win," Crosby said. "I think a few guys are nervous in there for sure and with it being the first game and all and now we know what we're made of. We played a good team on the other side and we'll build off this.

"How can you not be (nervous)? This is a big tournament. I don't think there aren't guys in there who aren't going to have little butterflies. It's perfectly normal, but I think we did good, coming out and playing intense. We didn't sit back."

The top three teams from each five-team pool will advance to the medal round, which begins Jan. 1.

"Obviously we've got some work to do," Carter said. "We'll have a good practice (today) and clean some things up and be ready to go."

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/sports/special_packages/world_juniors/10499908.htm