GAME STATISTICS | LIVE GAME BLOG
BEIJING, China – Five different skaters scored as Canada’s Men’s Olympic Team opened the 2022 Olympic Winter Games with a win, downing Germany 5-1 on Thursday.
• Alex Grant (Antigonish, N.S./Jokerit Helsinki, KHL) , Ben Street (Coquitlam, B.C./EHC Red Bull München, DEL),Daniel Winnik (Toronto/Genève-Servette HC, NL), Maxim Noreau (Montréal/ZSC Lions, NL) and Jordan Weal (North Vancouver, B.C./Ak Bars Kazan, KHL) provided the offence. • Kent Johnson (Port Moody, B.C./University of Michigan, Big Ten) and Eric O’Dell (Ottawa/Dynamo Moscow, KHL) chipped in with two assists apiece. • Edward Pasquale (Toronto, Ont./Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, KHL) made 23 saves. • Canada outshot Germany 27-24.
Next Game: Canada vs. United States – Friday, Feb. 11 (11:10 p.m. ET/8:10 p.m. PT)
Quotes : “It was great to get into a game. We played a scrimmage against the U.S., but it was not a real game. Tonight was a game with a lot on the line, and I really liked how our guys responded to the challenge. Of course, we will look back at the game and find things to improve on, but I really liked our mentality. That was something we talked about before the game. Knowing how Germany plays, we knew we needed to be patient, and scoring early helped with that. I thought we played a mature game for most of the 60 minutes tonight.” - Head coach Jeremy Colliton (Blackie, Alta.) on finally playing a game
“Our guys capitalized on a couple good chances early, and our team built off of that momentum as the game went on. You want to make sure you are getting wins regardless of how you get them, but we will continue to work on some things and get better and keep developing as this tournament goes on. No question, you could tell the intensity was high and it was a big win for our group tonight.” - Eric Staal (Thunder Bay, Ont./Iowa, AHL) on getting the first win
“It was a big game for me to turn the page on what happened four years ago [in a semifinal loss to Germany], but for most of the guys it was more about starting the tournament the right way. We wanted to make it clear that we are a different team from 2018, but at the same time we just wanted to focus on ourselves. The good thing about our group is that once we get up 1-0 or 2-0, we have the ability to play all our forwards and defencemen, and everyone contributes at both ends of the ice.” - Noreau on the rematch against Germany
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