The preliminary round of the 2018 World Hockey Championships kicked off on Friday in Denmark with a marquee matchup: Canada vs USA.
That meant one of the four Canucks at this tournament was in action and another was watching from the press box. Bo Horvat was on the ice for Canada, while Michael DiPietro watched from afar. DiPietro is mainly at the tournament for some experience heading into next year’s World Junior Championship, and isn’t expected to play, but he’s eagerly taking in every practice.
Horvat centred what was ostensibly the fourth line for Team Canada between Pierre-Luc Dubois and Jean-Gabriel Pageau, but played some significant minutes, finishing with just under 16 minutes of ice time. He was seventh in ice time among Canadian forwards, so it’s clear that head coach Bill Peters values what he brings to the table.
Horvat’s ice time grew as the game went on, going from just over 4 minutes in the first two periods to seven minutes in the third. Horvat’s line led Team Canada in ice time in the third period in a tight game. Maybe that was a bad decision — Horvat played nearly three minutes more than Connor McDavid in the third period, but it seems significant that Horvat played that much in such a tight game.
More than that, Horvat chipped in offensively, assisting on the opening goal.
It was a pretty assist, as Horvat back-heeled a bouncing puck back through his legs to Dubois in the slot. Dubois quickly flung the puck on net and beat Keith Kinkaid.
Those ⚽️ skills came in handy for @BoHorvat’s first point of the #IIHFWorlds2018! pic.twitter.com/4o7aQnHZKG
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) May 4, 2018
Horvat finished with two shots on goal to go with his assist, and was 5-for-12 in the faceoff circle.
Canada dominated on the shot clock, out-shooting the US 44-25, but a shaky performance by Darcy Kuemper in the Canadian net meant the score was tighter than it should have been. It took a surprising goal from Colton Parayko off a McDavid pass to tie the game in the third period and take the game to overtime and, eventually, the shootout.
With McDavid in the penalty box at the end of overtime, he was ineligible to participate in the shootout, so Peters turned to Horvat in the fifth round with a chance to win the game. Unfortunately, Horvat’s attempt couldn’t beat Kinkaid and Cam Atkinson won the game for the US in the sixth round.
That will be Canada’s toughest test in the preliminary round, as they have significantly easier games ahead against Korea, Denmark, and Norway, one more tough game against Finland, then games against Latvia and Germany. Only Finland should give Canada a run for their money, but Germany is coming off Olympic gold, so shouldn't be taken too lightly.
