With no team captain today due to an ankle injury, Canada’s PP took things in to their own hands and just started scoring at will. John Tavares and Mark Giordano both scored two powerplay goals in the game with Steven Stamkos and Steve Downie scoring one goal each. Corey Perry had a strong game with 3 assists.
Even though the score doesn’t reflect it, the Latvians weren’t completely out of this game. Georgijs Pujacs did score a goal for Latvia in the game and the team did put some pressure in the 1st period. The pressure ended when they started taking hooking penalties putting Canada up on the PP.
Team Canada played with a shortened bench since their captain Ryan Smyth is out with injury. Jordan Eberle is with the team but can’t be added into Team Canada’s roster until after Wednesday when their preliminary games end. They skated with 11 forwards, but against a team like Latvia, it didn’t seem to matter.
Both teams switched their goaltenders in the game. The Latvians switched at 7:35 of the 2nd period only to have Downie score just 3 minutes later making it 5-0. With a very comfortable lead, MacTavish had Chad Johnson in to start the 3rd period for Team Canada.
Team Canada will play Switzerland next on Wednesday, which will be aired on TSN/TSN.ca at 11am ET.
