CANADA

GERMANY

Tougher than it should have been. Seemingly, this evening was all about whether Connor McDavid would score.  He did, just over four minutes into the game.  Team Canada could then turn their attention to putting away another team that they were expected to beat handily. That task proved to be considerably more difficult.

Germany did a good job limiting Team Canada opportunities. The Canadians had a hard time creating offense at even strength having to rely on three power-play goals for the victory.

Discipline.  Canada took six minor penalties but Germany could not capitalize.  With the score 2-0 from the midway mark in the first period until the nine minute mark of the third, a power-play goal by Germany would have raised the tension on the Canadian side. Anthony Duclair had 12 minutes total in penalties receiving a 10 minute misconduct for hitting from behind.

In goal? Coach Benoit Groulx wasn’t saying who will start in goal on Monday when Canada faces Finland. Eric Comrie’s performance against Germany made that decision more difficult. Comrie made 17 saves for the shutout but was tested more than Zachary Fucale against Slovakia. Comrie was called upon to make a breakaway save and was challenged in the second period as Germany outshot the Canadians 10-6.

Empty seats. Attendance continues to be an issue with just 12,733 present to see Canada – Germany.

Plus / Minus

▲    Connor McDavid, Nic Petan, Sam Reinhart, Max Domi, Frederick Gauthier, Madison Bowey, Josh Morrissey

▼     Anthony Duclair

• CAN:  Connor McDavid
• GER:  Tim Bender

• “I think people put a lot of pressure on Connor McDavid and he just needs to come to the rink and play hockey the way he knows how, just relax and take care of himself and nothing else. We saw tonight with his performance that if he was thinking too much before, he didn’t tonight. He played.”
• “[Eric Comrie] was good. He had to make stops. He’s a very well-structured goalie, he competes hard. He was sound. I liked his game a lot. It’s obviously going to be a tough decision that we have to make. You want to see how they play, how they react and if one goalie is going to separate himself from the other one. Obviously both of them have been very good. We want to sleep on that.”

Connor McDavid

• “It was just exciting. I haven’t scored in a long time, I missed a whole bunch of games, and scoring goals is fun.”
• “You guys probably thought I played terrible [Friday] night, but in reality I had my fair share of chances and couldn’t cash. That’s just the way it goes sometimes.”

Germany defenseman Tim Bender

• “I thought we dominated in the second period. It’s a special experience playing against Canada in Canada, so we just wanted to have some fun tonight and I think we had that.”

Germany coach Pat Cortina

• “We looked more like what we wanted to look like in the second period. We lost to a better team and we have to learn from this experience.”