Canada’s men’s Olympic hockey team clinches top spot in Group A
Just like that, Team Canada has earned a spot in the quarterfinals of the men’s hockey tournament at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
With their 5-1 win over Switzerland on Friday, Canada has clinched first place in Group A, which also consists of Czechia, Switzerland, and France.
Team Canada has clinched first place in Group A with a 5-1 win over Switzerland. The Swiss played them hard and physcial, before the Canadians wore them down. All the best to Kevin Fiala, stretchered off after getting legs tangled with Tom Wilson.
Canada’s victory over Switzerland was their second regulation win of the tournament, as they topped Czechia on Thursday by a score of 5-0. Teams are awarded three points for a regulation win, which would give Canada six points total. As each team in Group A only has one more game left to play in the round-robin stage, the only teams with a chance to match Canada’s point total are Czechia and Switzerland, who each have three points. Since Canada holds the tiebreaker over Czechia and Switzerland after having already beaten them in their head-to-head matchups, Canada is assured of the top spot in Group A even if they lose to France on Sunday.
That is not the say Canada’s game against France will have no stakes. Head coach Jon Cooper’s team will still want to win on Sunday to earn the highest possible seeding for the playoff round, so as to draw a more favorable matchup in the quarterfinals.
With two tidy wins and a plus-nine goal differential, Canada has arguably been the tournament’s most impressive team so far, although the United States has yet to play its second game after beating Latvia 5-1 on Thursday.
Canada has been led by the dazzling play of top-line center Connor McDavid, who tallied a goal and two assists on Friday to give him a tournament-leading six points. Canada’s Nathan MacKinnon also had a goal and two assists against Switzerland. After goaltender Jordan Binnington earned a shutout win over Czechia on Thursday, Logan Thompson started on Friday and made 24 saves in the win.