TORONTO _ Earlier in the World Cup of Hockey, Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews wanted to assure everyone that Team Canada was not going through the motions in its domination of opponents.
"Everyone wants to talk as if we're just cakewalking through every game," Toews said. "I wouldn't say that's necessarily the case."
Team Canada looked like it for most of Tuesday night. Team Europe gave the heavily-favored Canadians a game but Canada rode its top line of Patrice Bergeron, Sidney Crosby and Brad Marchand to a 3-1 victory to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three final series. Game 2 is Thursday at the Air Canada Center.
Marchand, Crosby and Bergeron's line accounted for two of Canada's goals, with the first coming early in the game. Shortly after a penalty on Marchand ended, Sidney Crosby hit Patrick Bergeron with a pass as Marchand emerged from the box. Bergeron then hit Marchand, who roofed a shot past Europe goaltender Jaroslav Halak just 2 minutes, 33 seconds into the game for his fourth goal of the tournament. It has been a good week for Marchand, who signed an eight-year, $49 million contract with the Bruins on Monday.
Overall, it wasn't the prettiest of first periods for Canada, which struggled to generate shots outside of their top line.
But Canada possesses such a deep roster that it is capable of making great individual plays as on its second goal of the night when Ryan Getzlaf snatched the puck from Zdeno Chara in the neutral zone then hit Steven Stamkos with a perfect pass for a tap-in goal at 13:20. It was 2-0 Canada and the rout seemed like it was beginning.
However, Europe stuck to its patient play and didn't overreact to the early deficit. It finally came through in the second period when Tomas Tatar, who scored the winner in overtime in the semifinals against Sweden, fired a loose past Carey Price to make it 2-1 at 7:00.
There was some nervous energy in the arena as the third period began but the prime line combined for a key insurance goal when Crosby hit Bergeron in the slot for a 3-1 lead at 9:24.
Canada wasn't perfect, but it was good enough Tuesday night.
