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Winter Olympics Sochi 2014: Canada vs. Norway Men’s Hockey Recap

After Finland dispatched of Austria, the USA clobbered Slovakia and Russia pulled away from Slovenia, it was believed that the stage was set for Canada to manhandle Norway to cap off day two of men's hockey.

Expect for the fact that didn't happen.

Despite heavily outshooting the Norwegians, Team Canada was only able to muster a 3-1 win over their Scandinavian opponents in a game that has been overanalyzed to death.

Lars Haugen, goaltender for Norway put in a fantastic performance to keep his country close but in the end, Canada's skill was too much to overcome when they were clicking. There were stretches in which Mike Babcock's roster treated the game more like an all-star skills competition rather than an Olympic event, trying harder to be cute than efficient. But when they were on, they very much were on.

Both teams skated to a scoreless tie after the first period which no doubt drew the ire of Canada’s coaching staff. They responded by keeping Norway off the shot clock for almost the entire second period as goals by Shea Weber and Jamie Benn broke the scoreless drought for the Canucks.

Patrick Thoresen and Drew Dougthy traded third period goals as Canada held on to a 3-1, backstopped by Carey Price in his Olympic debut.

The end result was an important one for Norway who was able to keep the goal differential to -2, which will help them during the reseeding of the Relegation Round.

Canada next hits the ice tomorrow morning when they will host Austria. Hopefully for their detractors, the Canadians are able to put forth a much more offensively appeasing performance.

CAN NOR
3 SCORE 1
38 (7.89%) SHOTS 20 (5.0%)
19 (.950%) SAVES 35 (.921%)
10 PIM 6

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