Team Canada sure looked like its dominant self for its first game of the Winter Olympics in Milan.
Playing with NHLers for the first time since 2014, the gold-medal-favourite Canadians topped Czechia 5-0 in their preliminary-round opener on Thursday.
Macklin Celebrini, the youngest player competing in this tournament, opened the scoring late in the first period, deflecting a point shot from Cale Makar. It stood as the game-winning goal.
Mark Stone and Bo Horvat added goals in the second, while Nathan MacKinnon netted a power-play beauty with assists to Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby.
MacKinnon thought he opened the scoring for Canada earlier in the first period, but a hooking penalty to Nick Suzuki negated the goal.
Suzuki got on the board as well, scoring Canada’s fifth goal of the game late in the third.
McDavid led the way with three points in the first game of his first Olympics.
Jordan Binnington, who won gold with Canada at last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off, was perfect, stopping all 26 shots he faced.
Czechia goalie Lukas Dostal stopped 31 of 36 shots against.
Canada won’t have much time to celebrate the win, as it takes to the ice on Friday at 3:10 p.m. ET to face Switzerland.
