(Riga) Canada finds itself in a dismal position in the Ice Hockey World Championship after losing 5-1 to the United States on Sunday night in Riga.
The Canadian national team is 0-2 after losing 2-0 to Latvia on Friday. Gerrard Gallant’s men share last place in Group Two with Italy, who also lost their first two encounters.
Galant said, “I really liked our game in the first half, but it didn’t go well in the second half.” We need better disk management because the US has scored two goals from the fulcrum by creating screens in front of our network.
“We have to stop those shots from reaching the goal by going to the shot lines and trying to block the pucks, but we also have to do a better job clearing the goalkeepers’ eyes.”
Photo Serge Gretz, monolithic journalism
The United States, who lost 2-1 to Finland on Saturday, led 4-0 after 40 minutes ahead of goalkeeper Darcy Cumber.
Trevor Moore led the attack with a double in the second half, during which the Americans scored three goals.
Jason Robertson, Adam Clinding and Matt Tennyson, the latter against Aden Hill in the third half, also hit the US goal.
PHOTO SERGEI GRITS, Associated Press
Maxime Comtoua was the only goalscorer for the Canadians.
Robertson and Clinding added one pass each, and Connor Garland got two.
Maxime Comtoua scored the only goal for Canada with the help of Nicolas Boden midway through the third half.
“We waited nearly six periods of time before we scored our first goal, but Bodin had a good game,” Comtoua said. In the dressing room, we were talking about the importance of achieving the number one goal. After we got it we got more relaxed.
“We still have a lot of work to do. We’ll have to win tomorrow (Monday) and find the back of the net a lot.”
Canada will play its next match on Monday evening against Germany, who are ranked first in Group Two with six points in two matches.
Germany beat Italy for the first time 9-4 on Friday before beating Norway 5-1 on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, in Group Two, Kazakhstan defeated Finland 2-1 on penalties.
Kazakhstan won both of its first two matches on penalties, giving it four points in the standings.
Winning in extra time or on penalties award winnings two points while winnings in organization time award three points.
In another match in Group Two, Norway defeated Italy 4-1.
In all three Group A matches, Slovakia defeated Great Britain 2-1, Belarus defeated Sweden 1-0 and Switzerland defeated Denmark 1-0.
Slovakia, Switzerland and Russia are tied for first place in Group A with two wins in several matches, with a total of six points.