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Team Canada's Connor McDavid celebrates his goal against Team Germany with teammate Nic PetanPaul Chiasson/The Canadian Press

To put all this into context Team Canada has run the table against Germany at the World Junior championships, going a perfect 12-0 heading into this year's instalment of the match-up.

The streak lives on, but the Canadians had to earn it.

This is not entirely a bad thing; the United States was given a stiff test in their opening game against the Finns, everyone involved on the American side predicted it will be a benefit.

Now Canada has its own momentary wobble to look back upon (it lasted pretty much the entire second period) when the sledding gets harder this coming week.

As the tournament co-favourites progress through the round-robin games – next up, Finland on Monday – coaches and players are looking for signs on several fronts.

A couple were quickly apparent from this contest, which Canada won 4-0.

First sign: Connor McDavid has rediscovered his 'A' game.

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the host nation's goaltending was finally provided with a decent workout.

No one should be surprised to find Saturday's starter, Eric Comrie of the Western Hockey League's Tri-City Americans, in the cage when crunch time rolls around.

Officially, Comrie recorded a 17-shot shutout – Zachary Fucale notched a 12-shot donut in the opener – but that doesn't tell the whole story.

Comrie turned away a clear breakaway with the game still a contest (Canada was up 2-0 at the time), and rattled off a series of key saves.

"You can't really think of it as a job interview or it's not going to end well," a plainly delighted Comrie said of his performance. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, to play in front of this crowd, World Juniors, I'm just going to go out and have fun and enjoy it."

As to whether he had any inkling on what the coaches' plans are for the netminders, he said "I have no clue, whatever it is I'm just so excited to be on this team . . . we're both going for a gold medal, it doesn't matter who's playing."

The dominant storyline in this tournament involves McDavid, who is expected to be drafted first overall, and he delivered a player-of-the-game performance (although the laurels could easily have gone to teammates Nic Petan or Max Domi, both dominant on this night).

The Newmarket, Ont., native wasted little time in getting on the board, scoring his first goal of the tournament at just over four minutes into the game with Canada on the power-play.

It wasn't exactly a masterpiece of invention – his attempted goalmouth feed to Robby Fabbri caromed back to him and he needed a couple of hearty whacks to get the puck across the goal line – but he'll take it.

"It was just exciting, I haven't scored in a long time, missing a whole bunch of games, scoring goals is fun so it was nice," he said.

Asked to compare his outing to the Slovakia game, where he was held off the score sheet, McDavid said "I don't know, it wasn't a whole lot of difference other than the puck was going in, that's about it. I know you guys probably thought I played terrible (Friday) night, but in reality I had my fair chances and you can't cash, that's the way it goes sometimes."

The tournament is two days old, and already a 'you guys'.

In his post-game remarks head coach Benoit Groulx alluded to the performance-related stress players feel at the World Juniors, and said of McDavid's showing on Saturday evening that "he didn't really think, he just played."

"He's too talented, you know at a certain point he's going to find a way to make the difference," Groulx said. "There's a lot of pressure on these young guys, I think it's a matter for everyone on our team . . . just to come here and relax. Play to win, but sometimes you're thinking too much."

One of the less-discussed aspects of McDavid's game is his intensity and competitiveness; the 17-year-old was clearly pumped, his celebration included – deep breath everyone – a vigorous open-palmed blow into the board-side glass with his recently mended right hand, broken in a November fight.

"We might have to ask him to stop doing that," smiled Groulx, who didn't see the celebration and only learned about it in his post-game news conference.

Just over eight minutes later, McDavid returned to the same spot from which he scored his goal – to the right of the net, along the goal line – and made a perfect power-play feed to linemate Curtis Lazar, who coolly rifled home his first marker of the tournament.

McDavid would pick up his third point of the evening (a total matched by Petan) on a late power-play goal from defenceman Madison Bowey.

The trio of power-play goals will help settle the discussion about the effectiveness of Canada's special teams (they were also a perfect six-for-six on the penalty kill, which has yet to yield an opposition goal.)

The Germans are no one's idea of an elite junior squad but they are experienced, several toil in the NCAA and 10 players have spent time in the North American junior ranks – they're also coached by a Montrealer, veteran European pro bench boss Pat Cortina.

They gave goaltender Comrie more work in one period than Fucale got in three against Slovakia.

With the game 1-0, Comrie stuck out his left pad to rebuff a Parker Tuomie drive with the Germans on the man-advantage.

Make no mistake, Canada was clearly the superior team in this game, but they faltered in the second period and allowed the Germans to out-shoot them 10-6.

A spate of early penalties didn't help matters, but the Germans' willingness to skate and bang bodies along the boards seemed to knock the Canadian attack of kilter.

Groulx said after the 8-0 dismantling of Slovakia on Friday that he was pleased with the way his team moved the puck in its own end and through the neutral zone, the game tape from the second period won't soon be held up as evidence of that.

But Comrie was there when it mattered.

With Samuel Morin off for tripping late in the second period – when a defensive defenceman takes a penalty while pinching deep in the offensive zone it's never an auspicious sign – the Germans' best scoring chance of the game suddenly materialized.

As the penalty killers regrouped, speedy forward Marc Michaelis gathered in a breakaway pass and steamed in on net; Comrie calmly parried his attempt at sliding the puck through his legs. Michaelis looked as if he was about to burst into tears at missing his chance to make it a one-goal game. Given the assemblage of offensive talent on the other bench, it was a thoroughly understandable reaction.

In the third period, normal service resumed. McDavid set the tone with an early shift that saw him out-muscle a couple of German defenders and get off a one-handed shot that skittered narrowly wide.

Team Canada killed off a hitting from behind penalty to Anthony Duclair – which came with a 10-minute misconduct, forcing some lineup shuffling – and put the pedal down.

Jake Virtanen sizzled a wrist shot off the outside of the post, and a few moments later he sent McDavid in alone – the phenom mysteriously decided to pass it to open space.

On the very next shift, Sam Reinhart took an astute behind-the-net pass from Domi and sent a ridiculous backhand return feed that allowed the 19-year-old son of former Toronto Maple Leafs enforcer Tie Domi to score perhaps the easiest goal of his career, a one-foot tap-in.

Petan then banked a shot off the foot of the post after a lengthy period of Canadian domination, and moments later Bowey capped off the scoring.

By then the point had been made.

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