Austria finishes with clear defeat against Canada, hope for salvation

Canada, who decided to rest captain Sidney Crosby, right from the get-go proved they had no intention not to finish the group stage with a perfect 7-0 record. After 6 minutes Tyson Barrie gave Canada the lead on a nice play with Ryan O’Reilly and Claude Giroux. Three minutes later another Avalanche scored to bring Canada up by two, as Matt Duchene converted on the rebound. Taylor Hall made it 3-0 with a perfect deflection of Brett Burns’ shot from the point and the game was decided early.

Still, the Austrians did not play a bad game and had a good chance with Dominique Heinrich on the breakaway. Heinrich could not beat Mike Smith though and on the other side Jordan Eberle’s drop  pass was perfectly capitalized by 20-year old defenceman Aaron Ekblad.

Canada kept dominating the game, but Bernhard Starkbaum stayed strong and so the game went into the first intermission with Canada’s clear 4-0 lead.

In the 22^nd minute Matt Duchene gave the puck to Jason Spezza, who was let alone by the Austrian defence in the slot area and he had no problem whatsoever scoring the fifth goal for the ‘canucks’.

The Canadians seemed to have gotten tired of scoring goals and took a step back, which resulted in 15 minutes of scoreless hockey. Thomas Raffl even had the chance for an Austrian goal.

In the 36^th minute Jordan Eberle showed no more mercy, but a lot of patience in front of Starkbaum to use Burn’s pass to make it 6-0 after two periods of play.

In the 43^rd minute the Austrians finally scored their first goal of the game, as Dominique Heinrich spoiled Smith' shutout with a wrist shot. Canada was immediately looking for revenge, as just 7 seconds later Nathan MacKinnon scored on the five-hole and it took only 12 more seconds for Jason Spezza to make it 8-1. Austrian coach Dan Ratushny decided to give Rene Swette the last 13 minutes against the Canadian All-Star-squad in reliev of Bernhard Starkbaum, who though did not play a bad game at all.

In the 47^th minute it was the Flyer’s players to shine. Claude Giroux, with a nice 360 degree turn, gave the puck over the Brayden Schenn, who sniped the puck top shelf.

In the 55^th minute Matt Duchene, just like against Germany, had the honour to score the 10^th and final goal for Canada.

With this expected defeat, Austria now will have to wait and see what Latvia and France do in their game. Unless France wins in overtime, Austria will be a part of the Worlds in Russia also next season.

Canada will now start preparing for their quarter final game against Belarus on Thursday, as they continue their “mission gold”.

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