Canada Shuts Out China to Finish Olympic Hockey Round Robin
Canada has closed out the round robin portion of the men's Olympic hockey tournament with a 5-0 win over China.
Canada finished second in Group A, putting them fifth in the round-robin rankings. That means Canada will have to play in the qualification round on Tuesday, playing China again thanks to its 12th-place finish.
The first period was close in shots, with Canada only taking an 18-10 count into the first intermission. The score, however, told a different story. Ben Street opened the scoring at 2:09 after Kent Johnson's individual effort was stopped by Canadian-born Paris O'Brien before Street poked in the loose disk for the opening goal.
Four minutes later, Adam Tambellini blew into the Chinese zone all alone and fooled O'Brien before Eric O'Dell scored four minutes later to make it 3-0.
China proceeded to play one of its best periods of the tournament in the second, limiting Canada to just one goal and a one-shot advantage at 12-11. Canada's goal came at 38:03 when Kent Johnson went five-hole on Paris O'Brien, putting Canada up by four heading into the final period of play.
China lacked the same energy in the third and it resulted in Canada taking further advantage. At 6:23, Owen Power's blast from the point was tipped in by Corban Knight on the power play, beating O'Brien who had moved out of the way to react to the original placement of the shot.
O'Brien kept everything else sent his way out of the Chinese net and Matt Tomkins made 26 saves in his Olympic debut for the shutout.