The Ice Hockey World Championship is gradually gaining momentum. Along with this, the main contenders for gold medals are beginning to establish mutual understanding in their squads. This is helped by matches of the group stage with teams that are obviously inferior in class. Viewers could watch a similar match in Kosice performed by the Canadian national team.
In the fourth round of the preliminary stage in Group A, the national team of Canada played against the French national team. The tournament position obliged the founders of hockey to approach the match with all seriousness, because the Canadians had only six points in their assets after three games (two wins and one defeat from the hosts of the Slovaks championship).
As expected, the Canadians started the match actively, but in the first minutes they could not hit the rivals' goal. When playing in equal compositions, the French national team held up with dignity. The scoreboard changed for the first time after the Europeans earned a deletion. When playing 5 on 4, the Canadian hockey players did not have time to create dangerous moments, since the French almost immediately left again. For more than a minute, the Canadian national team had a two-player lead. Such an advantage soon made itself felt. On the 9th minute of the meeting, Anthony Manta sent the puck into the goal of the French national team with an accurate throw from the right throw-in circle.
The second goal was not long in coming. At the 11th minute of the meeting, the player of the Edmonton Oilers and the maple leaf team Darnell Nurse scored with a brilliant pass to the empty net from forward and Las Vegas leader Jonathan Marchesso.
At the end of the period, the young Tampa Bay Lightning striker Anthony Cirelli took the first roles in the Canadian national team. First, the throw of Nikita Kucherov's teammate hit the post, and on the 17th minute, having received a pass from behind the gate, Cirelli still upset the French goalkeeper for the third time. The score 3: 0 in favor of the Canadian national team held out until the whistle for the first break.
Contrary to the expectations of the Canadian fans, their national team in the second period was unable to continue the defeat of the French. The maple leaf players attacked, but could not hit the gate. In addition, overseas masters have earned deletions twice during the period. The French national team could not realize the first of them and even almost missed it in a dangerous counterattack. The Europeans played the second numerical advantage much better. In the 17th minute of the period, when there were six seconds left before the expelled Canadian came out, Damien Fleury threw irresistibly into the near top corner of the goal of the goalkeeper of Canada and the Philadelphia Flyers Hart. The score became 3: 1 in favor of overseas hockey players. The numbers on the scoreboard did not change until the end of the second period.
At 3 minutes in the final period, the French were able to score their second goal. German legionnaire Europeans Anthony Resch took advantage of the sluggishness of the Canadian defenders and hit the gate of Kasper Hart, reducing the gap to a minimum.
After the missed puck, the Canadians began to play more actively. The fruit of this was Anthony Manta's second goal in the match. On the 9th minute of the period, the striker finished off a shell from a penny into the gate of the French. The score became 4: 2 in favor of the “maple leaves”. Two minutes later, Mark Stone upset the French for the fifth time with a half-zone throw.
At the end of the match, team players began to leave frequently. The final segment of the meeting was played out by the national teams in unequal compositions. The score on the scoreboard has not changed. Team Canada won their third world championship victory with a total score of 5: 2.
