Connor Bedard records seven points as Canada crushes Germany at world juniors

After a surprising loss to Czechia on the first day of play, Canada took no prisoners on Wednesday, beating Germany 11-2.

The star of the show was Connor Bedard, who led the way with three goals and four assists. His seven-point effort tied the all-time record for points by a Canadian at the tournament with Dave Andreychuk, Brenden Morrow, Mike Cammalleri and Gabriel Bourque. Bedard’s eight points put him in sole possession of first in tournament scoring after just two games.

Bedard is projected to go first overall in the upcoming draft, with his six-point effort coming exactly one year after he scored four goals as a double-underager against Austria.

Thomas Milic had 14 saves in his first start for Canada, while Germany’s Simon Wolf and Rihards Babulis faced 52 shots.

Bedard helped set the first goal up, finding Dylan Guenther all alone for the 1-0 power-play goal. Roman Kechter would get one for Germany five minutes later, but Shane Wright answered back two minutes later, and Bedard scored one of his own at 17:26 to make it 3-1 heading into the break. Bedard wasted no time scoring his second just 1:02 into the second and finished off the hat-trick at 33:57, also on the power play.

The Germans suffered a significant loss at 35:49 when top defenseman Rayan Bettahar was ejected for an illegal hit to the head on Adam Fantilli. Canada made them pay, with Guenther scoring a pair and Logan Stsanooven and Brandt Clarke both scoring once to give Canada four goals on the five-minute advantage.

Canada didn’t let off in the third. At 41:22, Zach Ostapchuk scored his first of the tournament, only for Roy to do the same off of a Bedard feed nine minutes later. A slew of late-game penalties started to slow Canada’s pace, however, and Philipp Sinn scored with the man advantage to record Germany’s second goal of the game.