CANADA BLANKS CZECHS IN LONE WORLDS TUNE-UP

JASON LA ROSE

PRAGUE, Czech Republic – Cam Talbot (Caledonia, Ont./Edmonton, NHL) and Calvin Pickard (Winnipeg, Man./Colorado, NHL) combined for a 22-save shutout, leading Canada’s National Men’s Team past the Czech Republic 3-0 on Tuesday.

The game was Canada’s only pre-tournament match-up ahead of the 2016 IIHF World Championship; the Canadians open defence of their gold medal Friday against the United States (9 a.m. ET/6 a.m. PT on TSN).

Ryan O’Reilly (Varna, Ont./Buffalo, NHL), Matt Duchene (Haliburton, Ont./Colorado, NHL) and Connor McDavid (Newmarket, Ont./Edmonton, NHL) had the goals for the Canadians, who won despite being outshot 22-19.

It didn’t take long for Canada to take an early lead; O’Reilly redirected a Morgan Rielly (West Vancouver, B.C./Toronto, NHL) point shot past Czech netminder Pavel Francouz only 6:39 after the puck dropped.

Duchene finished off a pretty feed from Max Domi (Toronto, Ont./Arizona, NHL) just over two minutes after that, and the Canadians looked to be well on their way to a victory.

But that would be the last puck to beat Francouz, who gave way to Dominik Furch at the 11-minute mark of the second period with the score still 2-0. The Canadians made their goaltending change at the same time, with Pickard replacing Talbot.

McDavid added third and final goal at 12:05 of the final period, splitting the Czech defence and roofing a shot over the glove of Furch.

Talbot and Pickard split the shutout right down the middle, making 11 saves apiece.

The Canadians will depart Prague on Wednesday for St. Petersburg, Russia, where they will play their preliminary round games at the world championship.