McDavid's hat trick leads Canada over Norway
Bo Horvat rounds out scoring with pair of goals
Behind the net or falling to the ice, it doesn't matter to Connor McDavid. Canada's captain is a threat to score no matter where he gets the puck.
McDavid had a hat trick while Curtis McElhinney and Darcy Kuemper shared the shutout as Canada beat Norway 5-0 in Group B action Thursday at the world hockey championship.
Bo Horvat added his first two goals of the tournament to round out the scoring.
After opening the round-robin portion of their schedule with three games in four days, Canada's players looked rested and energized against Norway after two days off — none more so than McDavid.
McDavid nets hat trick
Canada's captain walked out from behind the net before firing high over the blocker of Norway goaltender Lars Haugen to open the scoring just 1:23 into the first period.
McDavid added his second of the night as he shot the puck over Haugen's stick as he fell to the ice at the right faceoff dot with 4:19 left in the first period, then completed his hat trick before the game was half over, roofing the puck over a sprawled Haugen at 8:51 of the second period.
"His first two goals tonight were pretty impressive," said defenceman Colton Parayko, who assisted on McDavid's first and third markers and is now tied for the tournament scoring lead among defencemen with five points. "[McDavid] kind of scores falling down on the second one; the first one he just finds the open space.
"He just seems to find the spaces and he takes advantage of it. That's what good players do."
"He's a guy who can get his own shot and he knows when our team needs to be picked up," added coach Bill Peters, who has seen McDavid's game grow since he coached him to a gold medal with Canada at the 2016 world championship in Russia. "He's continuing to evolve his game and be a dangerous player each and every shift."
Goaltender switch
Horvat scored on a shorthanded breakaway at 12:49 of the first while McDavid was serving a high-sticking penalty, then from in close off a pass from Pierre-Luc Dubois at 2:24 of the third.
McElhinney made nine saves in 48:12 of action before leaving. Kuemper stepped in to finish the game and officially recorded one save in his first action since Canada opened its tournament with a 5-4 shootout loss to the United States.
"I want to keep everybody sharp and everybody involved," said Peters about making the change in net. "We talked about doing it after 40 [minutes]. We waited a little longer.
"Kuemps made a big save and then he made a real good play on a goalie touch, up to the left winger, bypassing the forecheck.
"We're going to need everybody, so we wanted to make sure we got everybody playing."
Vlasic joins Canadian squad
Haugen made 28 stops for Norway.
Though their team trailed for most of the evening, the mainly pro-Norway crowd of 5,139 fans on hand for the late game at Jyske Bank Boxen sang, clapped, chanted and whistled from the opening puck drop until the final whistle.
McDavid now leads Canada with four goals and six assists and is tied for third place overall in scoring in the tournament. In just four games, he has already surpassed his production from the 2016 world championship, when he had one goal and nine points in 10 games.
Defenceman Marc-Edouard Vlasic was added to Canada's roster Wednesday after the San Jose Sharks were eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs. Vlasic, a Canadian gold medallist from the 2014 Olympics and the 2016 World Cup of Hockey and a two-time world championship silver medallist, is expected to get into the lineup against Finland on Saturday.
Forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau started the tournament wearing No. 44, but switched to No. 11 on Thursday so that Vlasic will be able to wear his usual number.
Canada, U.S., lead standings
After Canada's regulation win and a 3-2 overtime win for the United States over Latvia in Thursday's early game in Herning, the two North American squads are tied at the top of Group B with 10 points each. Norway sits seventh in the eight-team group with three points in four games.
In Group A action in Copenhagen, Slovakia beat France 3-1 and the Czech Republic edged 4-3 in overtime. The Czechs got an immediate boost from the arrival of David Pastrnak and David Krejci, playing in their first worlds games after the Boston Bruins were eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs. Krejci had a goal and three assists while Pastrnak had one assist to go with two goals, including the overtime winner.
Canada's next opponent on Saturday is Finland, currently one point back in third place.