MacKinnon collects 2 goals, assist to lead Canada past Austria at men's hockey worlds
Canadians overcome frustrating start to earn 5-1 victory, remain undefeated
Nathan MacKinnon scored twice and added an assist as Canada overcame a frustrating start to post a 5-1 win over Austria in world hockey championship action Thursday.
Travis Konecny and Will Cuylle each had a goal and an assist, and Sidney Crosby also scored as Canada remained undefeated and tied co-host Sweden atop the standings with 12 points from four regulation wins.
Brandon Montour had three assists while Bo Horvat added two.
Vinzenz Rohrer scored for Austria, which led 1-0 after 20 minutes despite being heavily outshot. Austria remained at two points with an overtime win and three regulation losses.
"All the teams we play against are going to come out with a lot of energy and play hard against us," Montour said. "We started off a little slow and were kind of watching the play. We had plenty of chances to change the score in the first period, but it just did not happen."
WATCH | MacKinnon's 3-point game helps Canada past Austria:
Marc-Andre Fleury made 15 saves for Canada. A very busy Florian Vorauer stopped 47 shots for Austria.
Canada next faces Slovakia on Saturday.
Austria opened the scoring midway through the first period when the 20-year-old Rohrer was sprung on a breakaway and beat the 40-year-old Fleury. It was one of just four Austrian shots in the opening frame
The Austrians made that lead stand up through 20 minutes with some dogged defending. Canada peppered Vorauer with 23 shots in the period, but generated few real threats.
Then the floodgates opened. MacKinnon tied the game seven seconds into an early second-period power play. After Horvat won an offensive-zone faceoff, MacKinnon beat Vorauer with a shot through traffic.
MacKinnon scored his second of the game with Canada icing an extra attacker on a delayed penalty against Austria. Canada clinically kept control of the puck, and after a sustained stretch in the zone, MacKinnon buried a one-timer from Montour past Vorauer.
Konecny returned the favour minutes later when he set up Cuylle from behind the net.
"We really got our game going in the second half [of the game], but we need to clean up the first half of our games a little bit," Konecny said. "We are getting a lot of shots, but it is a lot of shots from the perimeter that the goalie is able to cover. We want to get more traffic in front of our opponent's net and cause a little more havoc in that area."
Crosby capped the scoring with 93 seconds left, taking a saucer pass from MacKinnon and beating Vorauer on the short side.
The even-tempered game saw the teams combine for eight penalty minutes.
Other results
Earlier in Herning, Sven Andrighetto scored four goals to lift Switzerland to a 5-1 victory over Germany.
Switzerland is second in Group B with 10 points. Germany is in third after registering its first loss.
After Damien Riat opened the scoring 4:25 into the middle period, Andrighetto needed a span of 9:04 to complete a hat trick and build a four-goal lead in the frame.
Swiss goaltender Leonardo Genoni made 21 saves.
Following problems with the quality of the ice in Herning, organizers extended the time for breaks between the periods from 15 to 17 minutes.
On Tuesday, play had to be suspended in the opening period of a game between Germany and Norway and again in the middle period due to a hole in the ice.
In Stockholm, Finland routed Slovenia 9-1 to move to the third place in Group A with eight points. Slovenia remains without a point. Eeli Tolvanen scored four goals for Finland.
With files from The Associated Press
