McDavid’s Olympic dominance continues as Canada routs France 10-2: Recap, Reaction, and Highlights

The game-winning goal was scored in the final seconds of the first period, as Mark Stone intercepted a pass on the penalty kill, slowly hit top speed, and backhanded it past the French goaltender.

McDavid picked up his second assist of the game just over 12 minutes into the second, and he passed it to Cale Makar, who walked down main street on the power play and ripped it past the netminder. Macklin Celebrini scored on a penalty shot with just under three minutes left in the middle frame, then Sidney Crosby’s pass took a fortunate bounce of a French defenceman to make it 6-1.

It took just 20 seconds into the third period for McDavid to score his second of the tournament, using his speed to get a breakaway, outwaiting the French netminder, and sliding it in on his backhand. About a minute later, Team France scored their second goal of the game thanks to a slapshot on the rush, but Team Canada was able to score three more courtesy of Bo Horvat, Brandon Hagel, and Celebrini.

Takeaways…

• Connor McDavid picked up his third three-point game of the tournament, giving him two goals and nine points in three games, or a point per period. In fact, McDavid’s nine points are the most ever for a Canadian one Olympics tournament.
• He’s now just two points shy of matching Teemu Selänne and Saku Koivu for the most points at a single tournament, as both Finns had 11 at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.
• By winning 10-2, Team Canada now has a +17 goal differential. As it stands, Team USA has a +7 goal differential, meaning that they’ll need to beat Team Germany by 11 today to finish first in the tournament.
• It’s unclear when or who Team Canada’s next opponent will be. By likely finishing first in the group stages, Canada will play the eighth or ninth-seeded teams. It’ll likely be Switzerland, Czechia, or Germany.
• Tom Wilson’s status for that game is up in the air, as he dropped the gloves after a high hit to Nathan MacKinnon in the third period. It was the first fight at the Olympics since 1998 in Japan.
• The final game of the tournament will be contested against Team Germany and Team USA at 1:10 PM MT. If Germany wins, there’s a chance that they win the group, but they’ll need Team Denmark to beat Team Latvia. Either way, it’s unlikely, but all they need to do to help Team Canada is avoid being out-scored by 10.