Canada scored three times in the first ten minutes en route to a solid 9-1 win over Denmark tonight at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

Shots favoured Canada, 49-13. The winners got a hat trick from Gavin McKenna and three assists from Brady Martin. In all, 14 skaters had at least one point.

The Canadians are now 7-0 all time against the Danes, who were promoted from Division I-A last year and who have their work cut out for them if they want to stay up for next year.

Their first order of business is their final game of the round robin, tomorrow against Latvia. Latvia has one point and can qualify for the quarter-finals with a win of any sort. The Danes must win in regulation to get to the playoffs. Failing that, they will play the last-place team of Group A in a relegation game on 2 January.

"It's the early game tomorrow, so we have to get home, get some food and a good night's sleep," said Danish defender Jesper Olesen. "We have to be ready right from the start. It's our most important game. They play tough. They're a hard-working team like us. I feel as though we've been playing better and better each game, so I hope we can be just a bit better tomorrow."

Canada finishes its preliminary round on New Year’s Eve in a blockbuster against Finland to decide first place. Whoever wins—in regulation, overtime, or shootout—will finish in first.

"We'll re-group tomorrow but if we play the way we can, we should be okay," said goalie Carter George. "It's New Year's Eve, and everyone dreams of playing a game that night. All of us are going to get up for it, and we know the importance of the game, for first place. We're looking forward to it."

 

The Canadians got on the board early tonight via the power play. Gavin McKenna took a cross-ice pass from Michael Hage and didn’t miss with the opportunity at 3:17. They made it 2-0 five minutes later on another east-west pass, this from Tij Iginla to Braeden Cootes.

How bad was it for the Danes? Tristan Petersen broke a skate blade deep in the Canada end and struggled mightily to crawl to the bench. He wasn’t halfway there when Canada took advantage of the extra skater. Zayne Parekh finished the play with a high shot that eluded Patrick Tiedjen, who was making his debut with the national team. 

The Danes were outshot 15-1 in the period, but ironically their best scoring chance wasn’t that one shpt. Mads Klyvo made a nice rush down the right side and cut in on goal, but he lifted a shot high over the goal.

That being said, the Danes scored early in the second off a Canada miscue in the corner by Cole Beaudoin. The puck ended up on the stick of Klyvo, and his quick shot fooled Carter George just 28 seconds into the period.

Canada got that one back less than six minutes later, though. Captain Porter Martone connected on a one-timer during a power play to make it 4-1, and McKenna got his second of the night at 15:05 off another one-timer. 

The Canadians put the game away with two quick goals early in the third. Michael Misa got the sixth goal off a great back pass from Martone behind the Denmark goal at 4:45. Less than two minutes later, McKenna with a nice deke completed his hat trick.

Kashawn Aitcheson made it 8-1 with a bullet drive off the crossbar and in at 14:16 and Martone added his second just 24 seconds later.

"After the second period we had a talk in the room about building for the next game, making good habits and carrying over to the Finland game," George explained. "I think we did a good job of sticking to our game."