Canada wins even with a poor play

Canada was not yet "in the mood" in their WC opener against Slovakia in Helsinki. First period was very carefull playing from both sides. Teams were rather looking what is going on. There were no tackles, no penalties and very few scoring chances. However Canada managed to score once in a situation that looked very much as an offside. Ryan Getzlaf brought the puck over the Slovakian blueline and made a genious pass to Dallas Star Jamie Benn who put the puck easily into the net.

In the second period Canada allowed Slovakia to come into the game and they used one of their few chances after two minutes.Canada's young defender Ryan Murray made a turnover and Juraj Mikus brought the puck into the Canadian zone,made nice pass to Tomas Tatar whose quick wristshot found its way into Cam Wards cage. Immediately after tying goal Canada woke up and created shift after shift pressure to Slovakian goal. 

Slovakian goalie Peter Hamerlik made several big saves but then after 12.30 minutes he allowed an easy goal when Jordan Eberles shot from a narrow angle went in. Canada continued its active game and kept pressuring and after 15.21 minutes Slovakian defender Kristian Kudroc lost puck in Slovakian zone. Ryan O'Reilly took the puck and passed it to Andrew Ladd who took a nice shot to near side of the Slovakian goal.

Jordan Eberle got a goal today

In the third period Canada went back to the lazy game and they obviously thought that the game was already over, but that wasn't the case. After three minutes into the third period Slovakia scored almost an identical goal to their first. Mario Bliznak sent a pass from the Canadian corner and Milan Bartovic fired the puck behing Cam Ward. Despite that there was still plenty of time left Slovakia couldn't create much scoring chances, not even on power play when Corey Perry was penalized for tripping.

Slovakian giant Zdeno Chara wasn't quite happy with their play: "We played too open in situations where we should have played tight and carefull. In the second period we played better and got an equalizer but that wasn't enough today."

There were only three minor penalties in the game which someone could describe a rare case in a Canada game.

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