In the quarterfinal of the World Hockey Championship on Thursday, Canada defeated Slovakia 6-3. Canada had enough lead to comfortably withstand the Slovaks’ anticipated comeback, having scored twice in the opening four minutes and fifteen seconds and leading 5-1 in the third. “It was crucial for us to start strong,” stated Canada’s coach André Tourigny.
With two goals and an assist, Nick Paul led the offensive charge. The game-winning goal and an assist went to Dylan Guenther, and the defending champion Canadians also had goals from Jared McCann, Pierre-Luc Dubois, and Brandon Tanev. “Right from the start, guys were winning their battles, and we were able to move the puck up the ice and put pressure on Slovakia,” Paul said. “We generated a lot of shots and tried to build momentum early because we knew they were a good team.” For Canada, Jordan Binnington made eighteen saves. The Slovaks, led by Peter Cehlarik, Milos Kelemen, and Marek Hrivik, scored two goals in the dying minutes to pull within one before Paul scored his second goal of the match into an empty net.
Hlavaj Samuel made 37 saves. Canada will face either Switzerland or Finland in the semifinals. When McCann beat Hlavaj 2:15 into the game, he got a step on the Slovak defense and gave Canada some early breathing room. Less than two minutes later, Dubois capitalized on a huge rebound on a Bowen Byram shot to give Canada a 2-0 lead. Before the first half ended, Cehlarik had cut Canada’s lead to 2-1, but Paul had already scored early in the second half, and Slovakia would not score again until much later. Canada’s win was all but certain in the third period thanks to goals from Guenther and Tanev, which came 20 seconds apart. However, Kelemen’s goal 28 seconds later rattled Canada’s cage, as Tanev and Hrivik used a penalty play to narrow the margin to 5-3 with just over three minutes remaining.
