Canada suffers shutout loss to U.S. to open Para ice hockey campaign in Beijing

Canada's men's Para ice hockey opener showed the team has some work to do to accomplish its goal of claiming its first Paralympic gold medal since 2006.

The Canadians suffered a 5-0 preliminary round loss to the U.S. on Saturday in a rematch of the PyeongChang 2018 gold-medal game.

American Josh Pauls took advantage of a power play to score the first para ice hockey goal of the competition, putting the U.S. up 1-0 5:44 into the first period. Brody Roybal's goal doubled the Americans' lead shortly before the 15-minute mark.

"We need to focus on creating more offence and better scoring chances," said Canadian head coach Ken Babey. "We need to be a little more accurate with our shots and make sure we hit the net when we do have scoring opportunities.

"We need to realize that we are a bit of the underdogs in this tournament and that we are going to need to fight for pucks and find ways to score."

WATCH l Canada drops Para ice hockey opener to U.S.:

Dominic Larocque made 17 saves for Canada in two periods of play. Adam Kingsmill took over goaltending duties in the third and saved an additional four shots. Jen Lee made nine saves for the Americans, who outshot Canada 26-9.

The Americans won the PyeongChang 2018 gold-medal match 2-1 in overtime after equalizing with 38 seconds remaining in regulation.

"Pyeongchang feels like a long time ago and it is great to be back at the Paralympics. Our opportunities to compete at major tournaments have been limited recently, so all that might have got the best of us today," said Canadian captain Tyler McGregor.

Having missed the podium at home in Vancouver 2010, Canada rebounded to grab bronze in 2014 and silver in 2018.

Both Canada and the U.S. are already assured of spots in the knockout rounds. The top two teams from their three-team group (Group A) advance directly to the semifinals while the third seed will receive a quarter-final berth.

The group was also supposed to include the Russian Paralympic Committee before the team was expelled from competition.

Team Canada is led by veterans Greg Westlake, one of the country's flag-bearers for the opening ceremony, and Billy Bridges, the only Canadian to record at least 100 goals and 100 assists in international play.

Westlake passed on captain's duties to McGregor, who is now competing in his third Paralympics.

Canada returns to the ice on Tuesday at 12:05 a.m. ET against South Korea in Group A action.