Mangiapane and Brown posted four points apiece to send Canada to its third win a row in Riga
GAME STATS: CANADA 7, ITALY 1
RIGA, Latvia – Andrew Mangiapane (Bolton, Ont./Calgary, NHL) scored twice
and added two assists, Connor Brown (Toronto, Ont./Ottawa, NHL) had four
assists and Canada’s National Men’s Team kept its playoff push going with a
7-1 win over Italy on Sunday at the 2021 IIHF World Championship.
The victory – Canada’s third in a row – temporarily moves the Canadians
into a tie with Germany for the fourth and final quarterfinal spot in Group
B, although the Germans have a game in hand, and Latvia could jump both
teams with a win over Finland later Sunday.
Adam Henrique (Burford, Ont./Anaheim, NHL) chipped in with a goal and two
assists; Henrique and Brown now lead the tournament in scoring with nine
points each – all in the last three games.
Taking on an Italian team that had yet to win a game and was coming off an
11-3 loss at the hands of Kazakhstan on Saturday, Canada jumped on the
offence early and took a 1-0 lead when Cole Perfetti (Whitby,
Ont./Manitoba, AHL) knocked a rebound past Justin Fazio just 2:33 in.
Mangiapane got his first at 8:04, making a quick right-to-left move to
elude the defenceman before beating Fazio.
Okay go off Andrew Mangiapane!!! ?@hockeycanada @NHLFlames#ITACAN #IIHFWorlds pic.twitter.com/LMiTSssSEh
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) May 30, 2021
Troy Stecher (Richmond, B.C./Detroit, NHL) got in on the act at 11:33,
going upstairs with a wicked wrist shot, and Henrique roofed a beauty
backhand on the short side only 23 seconds after that to make it 4-0.
That was enough to chase the Canadian-born Fazio from the Italian net; he
gave way to Davide Fadani.
The offensive fireworks quieted until the back half of the second period;
Angelo Miceli finally got Italy on the board 10:31 into the middle frame,
finishing off a scramble in front of Adin Hill (Calgary, Alta./Arizona,
NHL), but that would the lone bright spot for the Europeans.
Mangiapane got his second off a gorgeous feed from Brown four minutes
later, and Maxime Comtois hammered a slap shot past Fadani for a power-play
goal to send Canada to the intermission up by five.
Brandon Pirri (Toronto, Ont./Chicago, NHL) capped the scoring late in the
third period, knocking in a behind-the-net set-up from Brown.
The Canadians finished with a one-sided 49-14 advantage in shots on goal,
allowing on six over the final 40 minutes.
Canada closes out the preliminary round with a must-win game against
Finland on Tuesday (5 a.m. ET/2 a.m. PT).
