Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby scored in Canada’s 5-1 victory over Switzerland on Friday in men’s ice hockey as Canada improved to 2-0. Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and two assists.
Thomas Harley and Macklin Celebrini also scored for the tournament favorite.
McDavid scored his first Olympic goal when — on a first-period power play — he took a back-post pass from MacKinnon and beat goalie Akira Schmid with a wrist shot.
About a minute later, Schmid made an acrobatic stop to deny Crosby on a breakaway by lifting his left skate in the air to block the Pittsburgh star’s backhand attempt.
McDavid added an assist when he fed Harley, who snapped a shot through Schmid’s pads for a 2-0 lead midway through the first.
Pius Suter tapped in a power-play goal for Switzerland in the first.
Celebrini made it 3-1 early in the second by taking MacKinnon’s pass and scoring from close range shortly after Canada killed off a penalty. The San Jose Sharks center, at 19 the youngest player on Canada’s team, also scored Thursday in a win over Czechia.
In the third, Crosby scored by redirecting a hard pass to the crease by Mitch Marner. MacKinnon made it 5-1 with just under seven minutes left when he slid home a rebound.
Switzerland’s loss was made worse by a leg injury to forward Kevin Fiala of the Los Angeles Kings late in the game. He was taken off the ice on a stretcher.
In other games …
• Finland showed plenty of fight in reviving its Olympic campaign.
Joel Armia scored a short-handed goal, and the Finns outmuscled archrival Sweden in a 4-1 group-stage victory 20 years after the sides squared off in the gold-medal game at the Turin Games.
Finland’s win — after losing its opener at the Milan Cortina Games to Slovakia — leaves the group’s quarterfinal spot up for grabs Saturday.
• Adam Ruzicka’s third-period goal stood as the winner in Slovakia’s 3-2 victory over Italy. Matus Sukel and Libor Hudacek also scored for Slovakia, which improved to 2-0 to lead Group B ahead of Saturday’s group-stage finale against Sweden.
Dustin Gazley, whose goal cut the lead to 3-2 with 3:35 remaining, also assisted on Matt Bradley’s goal for winless Italy. Gazley and Bradley are among Italy’s group of foreign-born players. Italy plays Finland on Saturday.
Czechia rebounded from its Group A opening loss to Canada by beating France, 6-3. Louis Boudon scored twice for France, which led 3-2 on Hugo Gallet’s second-period goal before Czechia took over.
David Pastrnak’s goal tied it at 3-3, and Matej Stransky put the Czechs ahead late in the second. Filip Chlapik and Roman Cervenka scored in the third. Pastrnak assisted on Martin Necas’ opener in the first, when Michal Kempny also scored.
• The U.S. was off and faces Denmark on Saturday in Group C.
