HOCKEY CANADA
2003 IIHF World Junior Championship
Tootoo is a Hit in Team Canada's Exhibition OpenerLed by Jordin Tootoo’s two goals and physical play, Team Canada easily handled Slovakia in pre-competition play in Sydney, Nova Scotia Friday night. Also scoring for Canada were captain Scottie Upshall, Kyle Wellwood, and Pierre-Marc Bouchard.Marc-Andre Fleury was not tested very often in the Canadian goal but was sharp in turning aside 11 shots to post the shutout. Upshall opened the scoring at 7:18 with a low drive from the top of the left circle that beat Slovak goalie Jan Chovan under his glove to the far side. Chovan split the goaltending duties with Peter Sevela for Slovakia. Chovan gave up three goals before giving way to Sevela midway through the second period. The Slovakian goaltenders faced 51 shots in the game. Kyle Wellwood put Canada up by two at 16:43 of the first off a rebound in front just as a penalty to Karol Sloboda expired. Tootoo scored his first of the game off a rebound at 4:11 of the second. Tootoo picked up the puck off a Brandon Bell point shot and fired a quick slap shot that Chovan got a piece of but not enough as it went into the top of the net. His second goal came 11:16 later when he fought off a Slovak defender, drove to the net, and took a cross-ice pass from Daniel Paille to put the puck into the open net. Pierre-Marc Bouchard rounded out Team Canada’s scoring at 5:11 of the third after winning the face-off back to Ian White from the left circle and went to the net to pick up White’s rebound. Tootoo provided a couple of big hits in the first period to get the sell-out crowd of 4,750 into the game early. When asked about his play in the game, Tootoo responded, “I just want to give my team a chance to win every night and I come out with a 110% work ethic. That’s the style I’ve played growing up so I’m not going to stop now.” When Fleury was asked after the game if not really being tested could affect Marc Habscheid’s decision on who will be the number one goalie, Fleury responded, “I didn’t let any goals in, but I couldn’t really show all that I could do.” Team Canada coach Marc Habscheid did not want his team to get overconfident after the shutout victory stating, “It was a good game but we must realize it was an exhibition game and we don’t want too excited about it.” The Slovakian team were without their gear until last night and only had one team practice together on Friday morning. Coaches Robert Spisak and Jozef Fruhauf both felt that their team’s effort Friday night was not indicative of what they can do as a group. Fruhauf said, “We feel that we can compete in our division and with a few more practices as a team we will get better.” When asked about the team’s performance in the game Spisak added, “Our goaltenders did a good job for us but our defence needs some work in practice.” Team Canada left the ice to a standing ovation and recognized the crowd by skating to centre ice and waving to the crowd before going off. Up next for Team Canada is an exhibition game on Monday night against Finland at the Halifax Metro Centre in Halifax. Slovakia will face the Czech Republic on Sunday.
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For more information: André Brin Director, Communications | Directeur, communications |
