Jeremy Lauzon played under a minute in the third period in Canada’s win over Russia on Monday. On Tuesday, he opened the scoring and added an assist in their 5-0 win over Slovakia.
After a flurry of activity in the second period that started with a scoring chance for Noah Juulsen, Tyson Jost entered the zone and passed it back to Lauzon who beat Adam Huska to give Canada the 1-0 lead.
Jost finds Lauzon who makes it 1-0 Canada. pic.twitter.com/USFSEiYhAn
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) December 28, 2016
Later in the period, Anthony Cirelli tipped in Lauzon’s point shot to give Canada a 3-0 lead. Cirelli added an assist.
Taylor Raddysh, and Thomas Chabot also scored in the second period for Canada. Michael McLeod scored for Canada in the third.
Raddysh’s and Chabot’s goals were power play goals. Canada has five power play goals in 10 opportunities through two games.
Pierre-Luc Dubois made a beautiful feed to Raddysh on his goal.
A nice pass by Dubois leads to this Raddysh goal. 2-0 Canada pic.twitter.com/Jix7uuTn6R
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) December 28, 2016
Canada’s defencemen, who didn’t score in Monday’s win over Russia, scored two of the goals and were instrumental in driving the offence in the game. Chabot also had a two point game.
Slovakia was playing their first game of the tournament. They face the United States tomorrow in Toronto.
It was a very eventful first nine minutes for Barzal. He started the game skating around the Slovak zone creating his own scoring chance, and later literally ran into Adam Ruzicka and the two collided head-to-head. Barzal was bleeding from his forehead but did return.
Juulsen, the Montreal Canadiens first-round pick, had a big hit on Oliver Pataky but was called for interference as it was ruled that Pataky hadn’t touched the puck. Slovakia did not get a shot on the power play.
Juulsen interference penalty: pic.twitter.com/lzX98eASHL
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) December 28, 2016
Connor Ingram was making his first start, and had to a big save in the first period, right after the Juulsen penalty. He only faced six shots in the entire game, but was up to the task when tested. The six shots Slovakia had tied the record for the lowest shot total in tournament history. Norway had six shots against Canada in the 1983 tournament.
Slovakian goaltender Adam Huska was the story in this one. Huska is a seventh-round pick by the New York Rangers and Slovakian goaltenders have a tendency of making a name for themselves at the World Juniors. He made 39 saves in the loss.
Huska was great, and without him, the score would have been a lot more lopsided. He played all but seven minutes for Slovakia in last year’s tournament.
Mitchell Stephens was hit in the second period and did not return. Miroslav Struska and Stephens collided accidentally in the Slovak zone. McLeod took Stephens’s spot on Canada’s top line.
Canada’s next game will be Thursday when they take on Latvia. They will play the United States on Saturday.
Canada has now won 10 straight home games at the World Junior Hockey Championships dating back to the 2012 tournament in Calgary and Edmonton.
