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I'm not even ashamed of how much I want to pinch his cheeks. (photo: screenshot/TSN.ca)
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was the one who opened the scoring early in the game, setting the tone for the rest of the game – one that ended up being 7-2 in favour of Canada.
Almost two minutes in, Nugent-Hopkins took a pass from Patrick Sharp and wasted no time blasting it past French goaltender Fabrice Lhenry to put the Canadians up by one. Minutes later, it was Sharp’s turn to score; his came on the power play from John Tavares and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Four minutes after that, Jamie Benn got his second of the tournament, before tallying his third later in the period. With thirty-eight seconds remaining, France finally got on the board when Brian Henderson’s quick shot beat Devan Dubnyk.
Sadly enough, the second period wasn’t as exciting, but it did see Jordan Eberle extend Canada’s lead on the power play, making it – if you weren’t counting – 5-1 in favour of the Canadians. Thirty seconds later, France answered: Alexandre Rouleau, who previously has played for Team Canada, took advantage of Dubnyk’s mishandling of the puck and scored his first of the tournament.
Halfway through the third period, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins got his name on the board once again; taking Patrick Sharp’s pass and getting it over Lhenry’s shoulder. At that point, it was 6-2 Canada. Just moments later, in case the four-goal lead wasn’t insurance enough, Corey Perry netted his first of the tournament to make the final score 7-2 Canada.
For anyone who lost track, that was three points for both Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jamie Benn, who was a +4 (the best of the game) and five points for Patrick Sharp, one goal and four assists.
But, according to Finnish media, not all is peaceful over at the WHC’s. It was reported that Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry were involved in an incident – a shouting match – at a club after the OT loss to Team USA.
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Terry Jones' explanation and some helpful advice from Darcy McLeod, aka @woodguy55. Alrighty then. (photo: screenshot/twitter)
According to Getzlaf, that’s not quite the whole story.
“Where that story came from, I don’t know,” he said after today’s win over France. “It was way out of proportion. Way, way overblown. It was nothing like what was reported.”
They were at the bar, and they were shouting at locals, but not because they were interested in fighting.
“Somebody tried to start an argument at the door. I said ‘No! No! No!“’ Getzlaf explained. “It wasn’t much more than that. There were never any punches thrown. Nothing, no incident.”
Personally, I think they were probably just arguing over which was better, poutine or karjalanpiirakka. And no, I didn’t just fall asleep on the keyboard.
Unlike Andrei Kostitsyn and Alexander Radulov of the Nashville Predators, these Team Canada boys don’t have a curfew and therefore aren’t going to be suspended, or anything, but everyone is interested in pretending as if this never happened and looking ahead to the rest of the tournament.
