Barring an 11-goal victory for the United States against Germany later this afternoon, it appears that Canada will enter the Quarter Finals as the top seed in Olympic Men’s Hockey.

Facing a France team with limited NHL talent beyond Montreal Canadiens forward Alexandre Texier and former NHLer Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, it was expected that Canada would win by a sizeable margin. Despite a close game early on, that lasted until just over halfway into the second period before Canada opened the floodgates.

Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson opened the scoring in the first period before France tied it up 13 seconds later with a goal from Floran Douay. Only 37 seconds after that, Colorado Avalanche defenceman Devon Toews scored to make it a 2-1 game. With four seconds left in the first frame, Vegas Golden Knights forward Mark Stone scored a shorthanded goal to make it 3-1 going into the second period.

The score remained there until 12 minutes into the second period when Colorado Avalanche defenceman Cale Makar scored his first goal of the tournament to get Canada on the board again. Soon after that came a penalty shot goal from San Jose Sharks phenom Macklin Celebrini to make it 5-1. Sidney Crosby scored a flukey goal only 19 seconds later to make the game 6-1 in favour of Canada heading into the final frame.

Keeping the implications of goal differential in mind heading into the third period, Canada put the pedal to the metal and began an onslaught of the French. Connor McDavid made it 7-1 before France added another one to the total with a tally from Sacha Treille, but that was the extent of their damage. Goals from Bo Horvat, Brandon Hagel, and Celebrini extended the score to 10-2 where the score would lie until the end of the game.

The game also featured some theatrics, with Wilson getting into a fight with France’s Pierre Crinon in response to a questionable hit to the head of MacKinnon, with both players picking up minor penalties for roughing along with a fighting major and subsequent game misconduct. MacKinnon took a beating in the second half of that final frame, eventually nursing his foot on a separate play which had Canadian fans holding their collective breath, but rest assured it will take something catastrophic to keep MacKinnon out of the lineup for the Quarter Finals and beyond, especially with a day of rest in between.

Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews along with Team USA will face off against Germany at 3:40pm eastern time to close out preliminary action.

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