Team Canada attempted to push their record to 2-and-0 against the plucky Slovaks on Thursday afternoon/evening.
Sebastian Cossa took a break in net so that Dylan Garand could start for the Canadians, but Donovan Sebrango did man the blueline for the Canadians.
There’s a good-news-bad-news situation here.
The good news is that the Canadians beat Slovakia 11-1, affording Canada a huge goal differential with which to break ties in case they lose to the Czechs on Saturday or the Finns on Monday, and Sebrango had an assist, finishing at +2 in a team-high 19:25 played.
The bad news is that Sebrango left the bench with 2 minutes remaining in the romp, and while Canada has a Friday off, Sebrango’s been important to the Canadians, and we’ll have to wait and see as to how he’s holding up.
In terms of the game’s narrative…
In the 1st period, Canada raced out to a strong start, and, while Connor Bedard was the dazzling dangler in the mix, Red Wings prospect Donovan Sebrango did indeed make his presence known with a good shot taken approximately 3 minutes in, followed up by a strong keep-in at the offensive zone blueline…
And the Canadians really created a ton of offense in front of Slovak goaltender Simon Latkoczy, perhaps getting a little “too cute” and too deliberate over the first six minutes of play.
6:16 into the 1sts period, Mason McTavish and Connor Bedard dazzled with a gorgeous set of back-to-back passes that afforded McTavish the privilege of sliding the puck to Bedard for a tuck-in goal through Latkoczy.
Connor Bedard opens the scoring for Canada 🚨#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/q24ZvG9mKg— TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 11, 2022
The Canadians continued to play cute hockey, however, and Dylan Garand faced five hard shots against because of it.
Sebrango got into the offensive flow of things without sacrificing his defensive prowess, which was good to see–you want a player who’s skating among his peers to look a little dominant from time to time, especially if he’s got 96 games’ worth of AHL experience, and Sebrango looked really slick at times.
Ridly Greig did take a dumb penalty at 10:57 of the 1st, and Slovakia headed to the power play.
On the PK, Sebrango made a gorgeous stick stop in front of Garand to deny Slovakia a back-door goal.
As the penalty expired, Will Cuylle got a breakaway pass and raced in on Latkoczy, and he made no mistake, scoring the 2-0 goal at 13:07.
Will Cuylle doubles Canada’s lead in the 1st period 🚨#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/mhza3hIbjG— TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 11, 2022
Soon after, Cuylle gave the puck to Othmann for the 3-0 marker at 15:57 on a lateral pass off a steal from the Slovak defense.
With the shots tied at 11-11, the Canadians’ defense was still a bit of a mess, but they were dominant offensively.
I was able to really isolate Sebrango during his shifts, and while he wasn’t perfect, he worked well in terms of his defending during a loosey-goosey period for his teammates, and there’s just no frills and no fuss from the left-shooting Bob Rouse clone.
With 43.2 seconds left in the 1st period (that’s at 19:18), Owen Zellweger plucked off a Slovakian pass and roofed the puck off the goalpost and juuuuuuuuuuuuust over the goal line to make it 4-0, and the goal survived a coach’s challenge from the Slovakian bench for offside.
Make that FOUR 🚨
Olen Zellweger shelfs one to give Canada a 4-0 lead late in the 1st.#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/6UCPdZ6QMz— TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 11, 2022
Soon after, with 32.9 left in the 1st, Adam Sykora took a slashing penalty, affording Canada a 5-on-3.
Slovakia escaped the 1st period with only 4 goals surrendered, and a 5-on-3 to kill to start the 2nd period…
In no small part because Boris Zabka decided to smear and smash Connor Bedard’s facemask, yielding a dumb, dumb, dumb penalty for slashing at 20:00
In the 2nd period, which began with a Canadian 5-on-3, Tomas Bolo replaced Simon Latkoczy, and he made some good stops, but 1:02 in, Logan Stankoven chipped a back-door pass into the net to make it 5-0…
Logan Stankoven cleans up the rebound to add to Canada’s lead 🚨
🇨🇦 Canada 5 – 0 🇸🇰 Slovakia#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/MSzKb9LxsI— TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 11, 2022
On the first of two 5-on-3 power plays.
Canada did not score on their second 5-on-3, but the Canadians continued to pressure a slightly more determined Slovak team, and the power plays expired some 3:03 into the 2nd period with Connor Bedard hitting the goalpost.
4:16 into the 3rd, Gauthier went to the penalty box for roughing, and the Canadians gave Garand some work…
But Mason McTavish scored a 6-0 goal shortly thereafter, in no small part thanks to racing up ice on a 4-on-0, but Donovan Sebrango chipped the puck up ice and McTavish went off to the races, so Sebrango got an assist at 5:25.
Mason McTavish scores on the breakaway for his first of the tournament to make it 6-0 Canada 🚨#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/SHObrr7lb0— TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 11, 2022
Sadly, at 14:40 of the 2nd, the Slovaks broke Garand’s shutout as Matej Kaslik got in through a sloppy Canadian defense and chipped the puck up and over Garand’s blocker, but those things happen in a blow-out.
Matej Kaslik gives 🇸🇰 Slovakia their 1st goal of the game!#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/jPPmESiDsD— TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 11, 2022
Mason McTavish regained the 6-goal lead, however, taking a drop pass and dekeing through two Slovak defensemen to score the 7-1 goal at 15:17.
McTavish roofs a backhand for his second of the game to extend Canada’s lead 🚨#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/0I5oAKPaHB— TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 11, 2022
When the Slovaks got a power play late in the 2nd period, and Sebrango did come out for a solid pair of shifts, more using his long stick as an area-cleaner and jabbing into scrums to steer the puck out of trouble than anything else. He also did a good job of avoiding getting smeared into the boards head-fist.
Canada killed the penalty, and McTavish completed his hat trick at 19:25, thanks to a selfless play by Joshua Roy.
Mason McTavish Hat-Trick Alert 🎩🎩🎩
He finishes a 2-on-0 with Joshua Roy to give Canada an 8-1 lead late in the 2nd period.#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/EXmKM31Ed1— TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 11, 2022
In the 3rd period, Canada juggled its lines slightly to make sure that nobody fell asleep in terms of coverage, and this bad news hit Twitter, per the Detroit News’s Gregg Krupa:
donovan sebrango playing in the world juniors for canada, just after this news breaks about the illness of his father. #RedWings #WJC #WJC2022 #HockeyCanada https://t.co/fom4gj8SVN— gregg krupa (@greggkrupa) August 11, 2022
Montreal’s 98.5 FM’s Jeremy Filosa reports that Sebrango’s father, Eduardo, has follicular lymphoma. He’s undergoing treatment presently.
Meanwhile, in the game, Mason McTavish scored his 4th goal of the game at 3:44 of the 3rd, making it 9-1 Canada.
FOUR FOR MCTAVISH 🚨
He’s now tied a 🇨🇦 Canadian record for most goals in one game at the #WorldJuniors. pic.twitter.com/CVhHU5AIZo— TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 12, 2022
Canada also had a power play at 6:22, but nothing came of it as the team tried to give McTavish his 5th goal of the game, which would set a Canadian World Junior Championship scoring record.
Again, Sebrango was solid, spare, simple and effective at even strength, making good plays with that long stick and maximizing his good but not elite skating abilities with strong positioning and sense as to where plays are going to happen ahead of time.
We’re still talking about a #4/5/6 defenseman here, but an incredibly solid one at that.
With 4:53 remaining in the 3rd period, Joshua Roy scored the 10-1 marker…
Joshua Roy scores on a loose puck in front to give Canada their 10th goal of the game.#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/sWK4ar64Fj— TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 12, 2022
In some not-so-good news, Sebrango headed to the locker room with 2 minutes remaining in regulation, but Canada has an “off day” on Friday before returning to action on Saturday the 13th vs. the Czech Republic, and the 15th vs. Finland.
Zack Ostapchuk scored the 11-1 goal at 19:39 of the 3rd, closing out the scoring.
Zack Ostapchuk scores late in the 3rd and 🇨🇦 Canada beats 🇸🇰 Slovakia 11-1 final score.#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/L4zQcrurw7— TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 12, 2022
