Brandon McMillan scored in the first minute of the game and completed the hat trick in the final minute of play as Team Canada cruised to a 6-0 victory over Switzerland on Monday at the World Junior Hockey Championship in Saskatoon.
Jordan Eberle scored a goal and added three assists as Canada improved to 2-0 and grabbed a share of the Group A lead with the United States. Alex Pietrangelo and Nazem Kadri scored the other goals for Canada, which outshot Switzerland by a margin of 54-15.
For the second year in a row, Canada has opened the tournament with back-to-back shutouts as Jake Allen made 15 saves for the win. Allen has now stopped 25 shots in two starts. Benjamin Conz, who was outstanding in Switzerland's 3-0 loss to the United States yesterday, gave up five goals on the first 20 shots he faced, but still made 48 saves in the defeat.
The Canadian power play was four for eight in today's game and has now scored 10 goals in 16 chances through two games in the tournament.
After a 16-0 drubbing of Latvia on Saturday, Team Canada picked where they left off with a goal by McMillan with the game just 23 seconds old. But the Swiss managed to weather the early Canadian storm for the most part, surrendering just a power play marker by Pietrangelo midway through the opening frame.
However, the second period was a different story as Canada scored three goals in the first four minutes and Switzerland struggled to keep up with Team Canada's frenetic pace.
Kadri and Eberle scored 20 seconds apart on the power play and McMillan added his second of the game two minutes later to extend Canada's lead to 5-0.
Defenceman Calvin de Haan suffered an undisclosed injury in the second period and did not return for the third period. Swiss defenceman Luca Sbisa was also injured during the game but was deemed okay by the Swiss coaching staff.
In the third period, Canada took their collective foot off the gas pedal and focused on getting Allen his second straight shutout. Despite taking some penalties that will not sit well with head coach Willie Desjardins, the Canadians kept the sheet the clean for Allen.
