Power play shines as Canada leads Austria after first period at World Juniors
Published
Canada came into Thursday's World Junior Championship against Austria as heavy favourites and looked the part, building a 3-0 lead through the first 20 minutes.
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Canada managed no shots on net through the opening 12 minutes, but Dylan Guenther got the tournament hosts on the board with a power-play goal off a nifty between-the-legs feed from Brennan Othmann. Just under two minutes later, Zach Dean fired a shot from the high slot that got through Austria netminder Benedikt Oschgan to double Canada’s lead.
Shane Wright then scored Canada's third goal of the period and second on the power play, wiring one home off a feed from Connor Bedard, who finished the frame with two assists.
Ben Gaudreau got the start in net for Canada, his first action since being yanked and replaced by Thomas Milic in Canada’s first game of the tournament. He stopped all four shots through the first 20 minutes Thursday.
Canada has nine first-round picks, three NHL players and Bedard – the presumptive No. 1 overall selection in the 2023 NHL Draft – on their roster while Austria entered Thursday’s matchup having lost both its games by a combined 20 goals.
The Canadians sit third in Group A behind Sweden (eight points) and Czechia (seven). Canada dropped their opening-game of the tournament to the Czechs on Boxing Day, the first time they’ve lost their opener with the tournament on home soil.
They rebounded in a big way on Wednesday, steamrolling Germany 11-2 behind hat tricks from Bedard and Guenther. Bedard also had four assists, matching the Canadian single-game points record of seven also held by Dave Andreychuk (1983), Brenden Morrow (1999), Mike Cammalleri (2002) and Gabriel Bourque (2010).
Bedard has 12 total goals in his World Junior career and sits two back of Jordan Eberle’s Canadian record of 14.
Next up for Canada is Sweden on New Year’s Eve to conclude round-robin play. The top three teams in each group will advance to the medal round. Finland (seven points), USA (six) and Switzerland (four) are the current top three teams in Group B.