2018-19 National Men's Team

CANADA TOPS AUSTRIA FOR PRE-WORLDS WIN

QUINTON AMUNDSON

VIENNA, Austria – Kyle Turris (New Westminster, B.C./Nashville, NHL), Anthony Mantha (Longueuil, Que./Detroit, NHL) and Jonathan Marchessault (Cap-Rouge, Que./Vegas, NHL) registered a goal and an assist each to power Canada National Men’s Team to a 7-5 victory over Austria on Tuesday in its lone pre-tournament contest prior to the 2019 IIHF World Championship.

Sean Couturier (Bathurst, N.B./Philadelphia, NHL), Jared McCann (London, Ont./Pittsburgh, NHL), Anthony Cirelli (Woodbridge, Ont./Tampa Bay, NHL) and Mark Stone (Winnipeg, Man./Vegas, NHL) also found the net for Canada, which overcame four one-goal deficits before forging ahead on the scoreboard late in the second period.

Matt Murray (Thunder Bay, Ont./Pittsburgh, NHL) denied 11 shots in 40 minutes of work, and Carter Hart (Sherwood Park, Alta.) stopped two of three attempts in the third period.

Alexander Rauchenwald opened the scoring for Austria with a wrist shot midway through the first period, but Sean Couturier responded with 5:36 to play in the opening frame, swatting a loose puck past Bernard Starkbaum.

Fabio Hofer put Austria ahead again just 22 seconds later with a breakaway goal, only for Kyle Turris to answer with a bar-down power-play goal less than a minute after that to make it 2-2 heading into the intermission.

The goals kept coming at a furious clip in the second period.

Thomas Raffl made it 3-2 Austria with a shot off the wing, Marchessault tucked the puck past Starkbaum’s pad with some slick stickhandling, Alexander Cijan completed a back-door tip to put the Austrians ahead again, and McCann answered with a deflection of his own 39 seconds later.

Cirelli put Canada in the driver’s seat at 17:44, tipping in a point blast from Brandon Montour (Brantford, Ont./Buffalo, NHL). Stone provided insurance with a minute to play in the middle stanza with a hard drive from the slot.

Manuel Ganahl cut Canada’s lead to 6-5 by taking advantage of a miscue by Hart at 9:32 of the third period, but Mantha restored the two-goal spread and finished the scoring at 11:56.

Canada outshot Austria 50-18 in the game.

The Canadians will venture to Košice, Slovakia for the preliminary round of the IIHF World Championship. It begin its quest for its first gold medal since 2016 on Friday against Finland (10:15 a.m. ET/7:15 a.m. PT).