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Hall hatter helps Canada

Germany overmatched in 10-0 loss

Published 03.05.2015 20:05 GMT+2 | Author Andrew Podnieks
Hall hatter helps Canada
PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - MAY 3: Canada's Patrick Wiercioch #46, Matt Duchene #9 and Taylor Hall #4 celebrating after a first period goal against Germany during preliminary round action at the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. (Photo by Andre Ringuette/HHOF-IIHF Images)
Canada got four first-period goals and cruised to a 10-0 win over Germany in Group A play at 02 Arena this afternoon.

Taylor Hall led the attack with three goals, and Matt Duchene had a goal and three assists. The third member of that line, Jordan Eberle, finished with two assists. In all, 14 players picked up at least one point in the lop-sided victory.

"When we were paired up together, we were excited because we know what we all do out there," Duchene enthused. "Everybody does something a little different, which makes for a good line."

Martin Jones, making his first start at the senior level for Canada, earned the shutout by stopping 17, mostly harmless shots.

Sidney Crosby played only one shift in the third period, but he's not injured. Coach Todd McLellan just wanted to get the entire roster some minutes.

"A lot of guys haven’t played in a long time," Crosby explained. "I’ve been fortunate enough to come from the playoffs. It’s been a few weeks for some guys. Just to get them in the game was good."

The Canadians stay a perfect 2-0 with the win in anticipation of their showdown with the Czechs tomorrow night. The Germans fall to 1-1 and will face Switzerland on Tuesday.

"I think the most important thing is that we played as a team," offered Claude Giroux. "We stuck to the game plan. That’s one reason we were able to score a lot of goals."

Canada’s fast start came despite incurring the only three penalties of the period. In fact, coach Todd McLellan took the unusual step of using captain Sidney Crosby as a penalty killer on several occasions just to get him some ice time.

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It was Crosby who opened the scoring just as a penalty to Giroux expired. Crosby and Ryan O’Reilly forced a turnover at their blue line and broke up ice on a two-on-one, and O’Reilly did the smart thing by passing to Crosby, whose one timer beat a sliding Dennis Endras high at 8:02.

Just 23 seconds later the Edmonton Oilers tandem combined for a goal. Eberle made a quick pass to Hall in front of the goal, and Hall’s quick release fooled Endras under the pad.

Cody Eakin notched the first of his two goals courtesy of some nice forechecking by O’Reilly. He stripped the puck off defenceman Bjorn Krupp behind the goal and got the puck in front to Eakin in one motion. It was in the net before Endras knew what was happening.

The icing on he cake came with only 10.8 seconds left in the period. Eakin picked up a generous rebound off a Tyler Toffoli to make it 4-0.

Canada was firing on all cylinders in the second period, Giroux and Ennis working well on two goals and Hall and Duchene equally effective for two others. The fifth goal came on a wicked shot from 19-year-old defenceman Aaron Ekblad.

Duchene closed out the scoring in the third on a penalty shot after Stephan Daschner pushed Duchene's loose stick out of the player's reach. 

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