Crosby, Celebrini lead Canada in dominant win over Slovakia at worlds
Sidney Crosby had two goals and two assists and Macklin Celebrini scored once with two helpers to lead Canada past Slovakia 7-0 in world hockey championship action Saturday.
STOCKHOLM — Sidney Crosby had two goals and two assists and Macklin Celebrini scored once with two helpers to lead Canada past Slovakia 7-0 in world hockey championship action Saturday.
Crosby, Canada’s 37-year-old captain, and the 18-year-old Celebrini combined twice in a three-goal second period for the Canadians at Avicii Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.
Nathan MacKinnon also scored twice, Brandon Montour and Tyson Foerster provided the rest of the offence, and Jordan Binnington made 14 saves to earn a shutout.
Canada remained undefeated with 15 points from five regulation wins. Co-host Sweden, with 18 points from six regulation wins, leads the Group A standings.
Patrik Rybar gave up five goals on 32 shots for Slovakia, and Adam Huska entered the crease in the third period to stop 10 of 12.
Slovakia was fourth in Group A, four points behind Finland with two regulation wins, two regulation losses and one overtime defeat.
Canada next faces Finland on Monday before meeting Sweden on Tuesday to wrap up round-robin play.
Elsewhere, the United States blew a three-goal first-period lead before beating Germany 6-3 at the ice hockey world championship on Saturday.
Conor Garland’s power-play goal 4:50 into the third period proved to be the winner as the Americans moved to third in Group B. The top four advance to the quarterfinals.
“I liked our start and response in the third period,” U.S. coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “They’re (Germany) a good team. They’re well coached and play hard. We knew it would be a battle and I’m proud of our guys.”
Tage Thompson struck 1:42 into the game on a power play for his fourth goal of the tournament. Frank Nazar doubled the advantage and Drew O’Connor made it 3-0 on a rebound with 5:43 left in the first.
But the U.S. is making a habit of squandering leads. It lost a four-goal advantage before beating Norway 6-5 in overtime Wednesday.
Germany scored three times in the second. Defenceman Erik Mic’s goal 8:43 into the period sparked the rally. Jonas Muller scored from the slot with 5:17 remaining and Wojciech Stachowiak leveled less than a minute later on a power play.
After Garland’s go-ahead goal, Logan Cooley made it 5-3 with 3:29 to go and Clayton Keller scored into an empty net with 1:53 left. Garland had three assists.
— With files from Associated Press
