SPORTSNET.CA

The start of the world junior hockey championships is still two days away but Canadian scorer John Tavares already owns the goal of the tournament.

The projected No. 1 pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft showcased unbelievable hand-eye co-ordination in Canada's 7-0 exhibition win over Slovakia. The rout ended a perfect run of three-straight exhibition wins for Pat Quinn's team heading into the first game agains the Czech Republic on Boxing Day.

Tavares initial shot was blocked after receiving a cross-crease pass from Cody Hodgson, the forward then batted the puck out of the air and back to himself before giving it a baseball-style swing into the open net. The wunder goal came on the powerplay at 9:09 of the third period to make the score 5-0.

"I was just trying to put the puck in the net and I felt that was the right thing to do," Tavares said. "I had some hand-eye co-ordination and put it in."

Tavares was flattened to the ice by a Slovakian defenceman before getting back up to celebrate with teammates.

"Some of that comes from playing lacrosse and working after practice fooling round. Sometimes those things come into play and help you out. It was a nice one to score. The guys will be bugging me about that one for a few days."

The goal was the second on the night for Tavares with his first coming in the second period off a another pass from Hodgson.

"Great hands," coach Quinn said of the acrobatic second Tavares goal. "Let's face it, to be able to score a goal like that is a special skill and he has that skill. I hope he has got a couple more in there that are the important ones when we need to have them."

Tavares scored four goal in seven games for Team Canada at last year's tournament en route to claiming a fourth-straight gold medal over Sweden in the final.