With one game to go in preliminary round play at the 2026 IIHF World Championship, Team Canada remains undefeated. On Sunday, the Canadians bested Slovakia, 5-1, in their sixth game of preliminary round play. The win brings their tournament record to 5-1-0-0, which leads Group B and trails only Switzerland (6-0-0-0) and Finland (6-0-0-0) in the overall standings. Pittsburgh Penguins [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/]' captain Sidney Crosby registered a primary assist on the first goal of the game - which was scored by Dylan Cozens - and Macklin Celebrini, Ryan O'Reilly, John Tavares, and Gabriel Vilardi each put forth multi-point efforts en route to the win. Goaltender Jet Greaves also stopped 31 of 32 shots on goal. The game remained scoreless until the latter part of the first period, which was when Crosby found Cozens to put Canada up, 1-0. Slovakia's Kristian Pospisil evened things up at 1-1 approaching the midway point of the second period as Slovakia outshot Canada, 12-9, in the middle frame. However, the game broke open when Slovakian forward Oliver Okuliar took a tripping penalty just 31 seconds into the third period, which is when Vilardi notched a power play goal to pull Canada ahead for good. Tavares scored two and a half minutes later to make it 3-1, O'Reilly tallied a shorthanded goal less than three minutes after that while Celebrini was in the box, and Celebrini scored a goal of his own less than two minutes later to give Canada the 5-1 victory. Slovakia did make a push later in the third, but Greaves was up to the task. Canada's final preliminary round game is against Czechia at 2:40 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, and the quarterfinal round begins Thursday. IIHF World Championship: Canada Defeats Norway and Slovenia Back-To-Back To Remain Perfect In Preliminary Round [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/c97ffc57-735e-4730-b4a1-a83d619e69f1.jpeg] IIHF World Championship: Canada Defeats Norway and Slovenia Back-To-Back To Remain Perfect In Preliminary Round Team Canada is one of only three teams remaining at the IIHF World Championship that have not lose a game. [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/latest-news/iihf-world-championship-canada-defeats-norway-and-slovenia-back-to-back-to-remain-perfect-in-preliminary-round] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bookmark THN - Pittsburgh Penguins on your Google News tab [https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqBwgKMK-q0gsw7sXpAw/sections/CAQqEAgAKgcICjCvqtILMO7F6QMwquDfCA?hl=en-CA&gl=CA&ceid=CA%3Aen] to follow the latest Penguins news, roster moves, player features, and more!
