Headcoach Marc Crawford saw a great start of Team Canada

Team Canada has had a perfect start to the 2011 Spengler Cup. The team, which is compiled of players who usually play in Switzerland’s first national league, overwhelmed Vitkovice from the very first minute of the game and won the match comfortably with a score of 7:1; six different players scored the goals for the Canadian side. The only goal for the Czech team from Vitkovice was scored by a player from Australia.

Eleven very convincing minutes at the beginning of the game decided the match for Team Canada, the eleven-time tournament winner. Goals scored by Kwiatkowski, Pittis (these two players scored twice within just 36 seconds), Perrault and AHL forward Brett McLean put the Canadians 4:0 ahead before the first whistle.

During the first period, the Czech players didn’t really know what was happening to them and they didn’t get into the game at all. It was also very unlucky for them that they didn’t have their number one goaltender between the posts; in his place, Martin Falter was supposed to stop the Canadian offensive play. Falter, loaned from Sparta for the Spengler Cup, was quite unlucky in a couple of his saves and had a rather disappointing evening.

Walker‘s Very Special Moment

Vitkovice didn’t live up to its club name "Steel" at any moment throughout the game – their game was not as hard and tough as steel at all. On the contrary: The Canadians managed to break through Vitkovice’s defensive lines again and again as if they were inexistent.

Only one player stuck out among the rather mediocre Czech team tonight: Nathan Walker, who was born in Wales and plays on Australia’s national team. The 17-year-old scored the “consolation goal” for Vitkovice on a power play and became the first player from Down Under to make it into the 88-year-old list of scorers at the Spengler Cup.

Facing the Host Team Tomorrow

Vitkovice, which will be facing hosts HC Davos on Tuesday evening, may be better than the performance the team showed in the first period against Team Canada tonight. But the team’s quality is probably not good enough to improve the rather meager Czech Spengler Cup record to date.

Apart from Sparta Prague, which reached the final in 2004, most of the Czech teams have shown rather disappointing performances so far. That may also be one of the reasons why Fredi Pargätzi, President of the Organizing Committee, would like to see a Finnish or a Swedish participant in the future. (si)