Montreal’s Nick Suzuki and Josh Brook started their tournament against Denmark on Boxing Day in a 14-0 win.
Denmark hung with Canada somewhat successfully in the first five minutes or so, but Morgan Frost made it 1-0 at 4:52 from Brett Leason when he found himself all alone in the offensive zone.
Morgan Frost with some nice hands to score Team Canada’s first goal of World Juniors pic.twitter.com/a5luftC4RM
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) December 27, 2018
Canada put their collective foot down after that, and Frost sent the puck to Owen Tippett to make it 2-0 as they out-shot Denmark 9-2 in the first half.
Goal #2 and celebration pic.twitter.com/wp7uKcTkOE
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) December 27, 2018
Denmark drew the first power play of the game at 12:31, but though they looked decent on the advantage, holding the offensive zone for nearly the entire two minutes, they were unable to capitalize.
Jonas Røndbjerg got the best Danish chance of the period, backhanding the puck just wide of the net, but Frost got his second goal and third point with less than a minute to go.
Unsurprisingly, Canada led 3-0 and out-shot Denmark 15-7 after 20.
Just 45 seconds into the second, Maxime Comtois made it 3-0, and Suzuki made a great play to get Frost the hat trick 1:05 into the second.
I don’t know whose pass is better DiPietro’s to Suzuki, or Suzuki to Frost pic.twitter.com/CdhpvuTd2r
— Scott Matla (@scottmatla) December 27, 2018
Despite trailing 5-0, Denmark kept working and drew a power play. Unfortunately for Denmark, they remained unable to solve Mikey DiPietro.
Oliver Kjær took a delay of game penalty 7:05 into the second, and Canada struck once more, Jack Studnicka scored from Cody Glass and Evan Bouchard. Denmark got another power play when Alexis Lafrenier hit Danish goalie Mads Søgaard in the throat with his stick. Canada did not allow a shot against. They got a power play of their own when Lucas Andersen got a tripping call at 11:41.
The puck ended up on Suzuki’s stick quite a few times on the advantage, making some really nice passes, but it was Owen Tippett who got the goal on an assist from Bouchard right as the power play expired.
Denmark almost immediately took a too-many-men penalty, but the Danes allowed zero shots on the kill. However, with just over a minute to go, Canada made it 8-0 on a goal from Jaret Anderson-Dolan.
Jaret Anderson-Dolan’s wrist looks pretty healthy to us 😍#GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/YOBocQtSx5
— LA Kings (@LAKings) December 27, 2018
Malte Setkov took a slashing penalty with 13 seconds to go in a period that ended 8-0, shots 33-12 for Canada.
With Canada on the power play, Phillip Schultz flew in short-handed, and was interfered with, leading to a Danish penalty shot—which changed nothing.
Comtois got his second of the game on a delayed penalty to make it 9-0. The Canadian captain capped of his hat trick at 7:01. Brett Leason got in on the scoring just about half-way through the third.
Søgaard got his arm pushed awkwardly into the post by one of his own players, and went down, but stayed in the game until there was only 7:28 to go. Backup goalie William Rorth went in and Leason immediately got his second of the game from Frost and Canadiens prospect Josh Brook.
Comtois got his fourth of the game less than a minute later to make it 13-0, and somehow Suzuki missed a wide open net, after beating both Rorth and all the defensemen.
MacKenzie Entwistle scored at 16:47, and that’s how it ended, Canada out-shooting Denmark 45-14.
As always, you do have to give Denmark at least some credit for still trying despite being horrifically outmatched, and eventually down 14-0. And if past experience is anything to go by, they’ll be ready to put up as much of a fight as they’re capable of against Russia tomorrow as well.
As for Canada, we knew they were good.
