The Canadians needed to come out hard and clean to beat the Swedes and they did just that. They came out the gate ready to do the work it would take to win Canada's fifth straight Gold in the WJC and to a man they did not disappoint. Sweden reverted to old-school euro-antics of days gone by flopping themselves all over the ice and endeavouring to draw peanlties with their academy-worthy acting.
Swedish goalie Jacob Markstrom chewed scenery as the over-emotional, hard-done-by goalie that everyone was picking on, while at the same time crosschecking players in his crease, slashing a Canadian player's stick in two and deliberately tripping a player crossing in front of his blue ice. It was pretty sad actually, considering that Markstrom (a Florida Panther pick) is a pretty fine goalie and doesn't need all that extraneous crap to make the good stop. My favourite was his head snap back move when his own player elbowed him in the mask, in his crease. bravo Markstrom bravo .. *polite golf-clap*
The Canadians opened the scoring on the PP, when defenseman PK Subban crashed the crease and put the loose puck past Markstrom. The Canadians were .500 on their PP in this year's tournament scoring a ridiculous 21 goals in 42 attempts with the man-advantage. They also lead the tourney in PK stats, allowing only 4 PPGA while down a man or two, holding an 85.71 PK%. Jordan Eberle and Cody Hodgson got the assists on the goal.
Dustin Tokarksi put together game that a lot of fans were thinking might not be there for him, turning away 12 shots in the opening frame without allowing a goal, after allowing goals on minimal shots the past two games. There was some bad luck on a lot of those goals, but the doubters were still in force at the drop of the puck, but not at the end of the game.
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