INCHEON, Korea, Republic Of -- Christian Thomas had the eventual winner as Canada defeated Sweden 4-1 on Monday in a pre-Olympic men's hockey game.
Mat Robinson had a power-play goal to tie the game 1-1 for Canada in the first period. Rene Bourque and Wojtek Wolski also scored.
"We did a great job regrouping after that first period -- making some adjustments, getting the puck in deep, and forechecking (to create) those turnovers, creating some space," said Canadian captain Chris Kelly.
Goalie Ben Scrivens started for the Canadians and was replaced in net by Kevin Poulin after two periods.
Dick Axelsson opened the scoring for Sweden and Jhonas Enroth got the start in net.
Canada went 1-for-2 on the power play and the Swedes could not score on their three man advantages.
"We made things difficult on their power play," said Kelly. "We put them into positions that we wanted them in instead of them dictating the play. We're going to need the offence spread around. We can't rely on one or two lines."
Canada's Maxim Lapierre said the team played with a lot of emotion.
"We played a playoff-type of game," he said. "(It was) physical, and we came out strong in the second period. It's important in games like these to work on our systems, and to have the opportunity to work on our penalty-kill was huge for us, and we got it done."
The Canadian men open their Olympic tournament on Thursday against Switzerland.
"It's important for us to focus -- the calibre of play is only going to get stronger," said Lapierre. "The Swiss team has a lot of speed, so we'll have to be ready to go from the moment the puck drops."
