GRAND FORKS, N.D. — Canada’s men’s hockey team felt frustrated after 20 minutes of their first preliminary-round game at the IIHF under-18 world championships.
Then the light switched on — literally.
Canada’s 10-2 victory over Denmark on Friday night was delayed nearly an hour during the first intermission when a power outage struck Ralph Engelstad Arena and much of Grand Forks.
The Canadians went into the break tied 2-2 after allowing two quick goals in under a minute. When the power was restored, they came out firing.
"With the break and the lights going out, that probably worked in our favour," said Canada’s head coach Shaun Clouston. "The guys were able to restart, refocus and it was almost like starting a game 0-0 brand new."
Jordan Kyrou scored four goals, including one 27 seconds into the second period, to tie a tournament record for most in a game, and Tyson Jost had two goals and three assists as Canada (1-0-0) cruised to victory after the power outage.
Playing with just 10 forwards, Clouston had to juggle his lines as the game wore on. One specific adjustment in the second period paid dividends.
"We moved Kyrou onto a line with Jost for parts of the game," he said. "They got some good ice time and they really seemed to click.
"(Kyrou) scored the first goal in the second period and then got himself to the front of the net. We wanted to simplify our game, we wanted to make sure we got pucks through their screens because they were doing such a good job. He got himself there and was able to chip in a couple of rebounds."
Mason Shaw, Beck Malenstyn, Maxime Comtois and William Bitten rounded out the Canadian attack.
Jacob Schmidt-Svejstrup and Joachim Blichfeldt scored for Denmark (0-1-0).
"One (of the goals) was not quite a neutral-zone turnover but I thought Denmark did a really good job clogging things up in the neutral zone," Clouston said. "We didn’t respond to that overly well in the first period."
Canadian goaltender Stuart Skinner made seven saves for the win.
Denmark’s Mads-Emil Gransoe stopped 42-of-51 shots through 58:03 and teammate Kasper Krog allowed one goal on the only shot he faced the rest of the way.
