Desbiens bounces back, Groups A & C debut
A busy day with five games after Canada and Finland played their postponed game, and four more men’s teams got underway, including Canada and the United States.
Switzerland 4, France 0 (Group A)
Switzerland scored twice in the first 3:06 with goals from Damien Riat and Janis Moser. France recovered after that, but were unable to beat Swiss goaltender Leonardo Genoni. Genoni made 27 saves and became the oldest goaltender in the NHL-at-the-Olympics era to record a shutout.
Timo Meier scored twice in the third period to extend the lead. Montreal Canadien Alexandre Texier played 23 minutes, was a -1 and had three shots on goal for France.
Canada 5, Finland 0 (Group A – Women)
After a 5-0 loss to the United States, Canada needed to rebound and they did with a strong performance against Finland.
It wasn’t a perfect performance, and some of the chances the Canadians converted in this one won’t likely be available against the United States but it was a chance to get right. Emily Clark had two goals, while Daryl Watts, Kristin O’Neill, and Jenn Gardiner also added goals. O’Neill added an assist for a two-point game. Julia Gosling and Laura Stacey both had two assists as well.
“You expect us to be better and Finland is obviously a good team. It’s not the same pace and speed, but sometimes you need that,” said Canadian head coach Troy Ryan. “You need a little space; you need to be able to sort things out. I thought our offensive zone play was good—we didn’t panic, we spread things out and we used the middle a lot more on our breakouts, which gave us better pucks through the neutral zone.”
After being pulled against the US, Ann-Renée Desbiens got her third start in four days and made 17 saves for the shutout.
”I think we played with a fire under us. We pressured hard, we created a lot of turnovers, we attacked off the turnovers and did all the things we wanted to do,” said Desbiens It was a better effort and I think we showed our identity and played the way want to play. [We want to] be hard to play against, be physical and have good stick details. I love how every single player had an impact and that’s how we have to be moving forward.”
Canada 5, Czechia 0 (Group A)
Justin recapped this game here.
United States 5 Latvia 1 (Group C)
The Latvians held the United States as long as they could, using two disallowed goals to go into the first intermission tied at 1-1. Brady Tkachuk and Renars Krastenbergs traded goals 1:56 apart.
Brock Nelson scored twice, while Tage Thompson and Auston Matthews also scored for the United States. The Americans scored three goals in the second period. Elvis Merzlikins allowed four goals on 32 shots through two periods and Arturs Silovs allowed one goal on six shots in the third period in relief.
Connor Hellebuyck had 17 saves. Jack Eichel, Matthew Tkachuk, and Quinn and Jack Hughes all had two assists.
Germany 3 Denmark 1 (Group C)
Leon Draisaitl scored 23 seconds into the game and added an assist, while Tim Stützle scored twice in the second period in Germany’s win over Denmark.
Oscar Moelgaard scored the Danes’ only goal and Denmark actually outshot the Germans 38-26. Philipp Grubauer made 37 saves in the win. Frederik Andersen made 23 saves for Denmark.
The three other teams in Group C will likely be battling for position behind the Americans, and Germany certainly has a leg up if their best players can perform like this for them consistently, especially in goal.
Up Next
If you thought five games was busy, just wait until the next two days where six games will be played. The men’s action continues with Finland and Sweden and Italy against Slovakia in the men’s Group C. Those games are followed by France and Czechia on the men’s side while the Czech women face Sweden in their quarterfinal. Then Canada and Switzerland face off on the men’s side while the Americans face Italy in their women’s quarterfinal.
