Pittsburgh Penguins' captain Sidney Crosby tied an IIHF record with his four-assist third period to help give Canada a 3-0 start to preliminary round play.
Pittsburgh Penguins' captain Sidney Crosby had a relatively slow start to his IIHF World Championship bid in this year's tournament, registering just one secondary assist through the first two games.
But he finally broke out in a big way - and a record-breaking one - on Monday.
After a scoreless first 40 minutes, Canada scored five goals in the third period - with four of them assisted by Crosby, all primaries - to beat Denmark, 5-1, in their preliminary round matchup Monday. The final tally from Canada was scored by Penguins' defenseman Parker Wotherspoon, who was set up for a one-timer by his NHL teammate.
Crosby's four assists in one period tied an IIHF record, which was previously held solely by Mats Sundin, who accomplished the feat in 1994 during a game against Team USA - also during the third period.
The last time the Canadians and the Danes met at the IIHF World Championship, Denmark stunned Team Canada with a late 2-1 victory in the quarterfinal round in 2025. Same as in that affair, there was no score after two periods of play, and this was after a disallowed goal (offside) by Macklin Celebrini in the second period that would have given Crosby a fifth primary assist.
But, youngster Porter Martone finally broke the scoreless tie a little less than 30 seconds into the third on a nice little seam pass in the low slot from Crosby to put Canada up, 1-0. Gabriel Vilardi added a tally just three minutes later to make it 2-0.
Then, just 24 seconds after that, Canada came in on the rush, and Celebrini drop-passed to a breaking Crosby down the right side. Crosby found Denton Mateychuk in the slot, and he put one on net that snuck its way through Danish goaltender Nicolaj Henriksen for Canada's third goal.
Danish forward Nick Olesen - who scored the game-winner for Denmark in last year's quarterfinal - found the back of the net at the midway point of the period to cut Canada's lead to 2-1. But, the rest of the way, it was the Crosby show.
A minute and a half later, Crosby found Ryan O'Reilly on a gorgeous one-handed feed to restore Canada's three-goal lead. He was working in his office down low, fending off a Danish defender as he forced the puck to O'Reilly in the low slot with only his right hand.
Crosby signed, sealed, and delivered his four-assist game with the primary on Wotherspoon's goal with 30 seconds left in regulation, as Crosby - down low again - found Wotherspoon breaking down the right side with another seam pass to give Canada the 5-1 victory.
The 38-year-old has now tied Celebrini and Martone - both teenagers - for the team lead in points with five.
Next up for Team Canada is Norway at 10:20 a.m. EDT on Thursday. They are 3-0 so far in preliminary round play.
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