Canada Stretches 5-3 Start Ahead of Italy — Canada Vs Italy Hockey
Canada vs Italy hockey arrived with Canada carrying a 5-3 win over Sweden into Saturday morning’s group game in Switzerland, and the matchup opened with Canada priced at -10,000 on the moneyline. That line matched the gap on the ice: Canada is the tournament gold favorite at -130, while Italy entered as a long shot at +90,000.
Connor Brown set the tone against Sweden by scoring the eventual winner 3:31 into the third period. Canada also got goals from John Tavares, Ryan O'Reilly, Dylan Holloway and Dylan Cozens, with Porter Martone, Darnell Nurse and Fraser Minten each finishing with two assists.
Canada’s fast start
The Sweden game was not a one-way walk. Canada led 2-0 after the first period, saw Sweden pull level at 3-3 entering the third, then regained control when Brown scored early in the final frame. Jet Greaves handled the finish with 25 saves, while Canada went 2-for-5 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill.
That opening result matters because Canada now moves through the group stage with six different names already on the scoresheet from Friday night alone. Cam Talbot’s 2016 World Championship résumé still looms in the background, but this roster is already producing depth scoring and enough special-teams work to survive a tighter game than the final score suggested.
Italy’s return to Division One
Italy is back in the top division of the World Championship for the first time since 2022, when it finished 15th of 16 teams and went down with Great Britain. Its best finish remains fourth place in 1953, and this group arrives without any NHL players on the roster.
Jukka Jalonen is behind that team after guiding Finland to three World Championship gold medals in 2011, 2019 and 2022, plus Olympic gold in 2022. Italy’s Olympic run in Milan also showed the scale of the task: it was one of two winless teams and lost 5-2 to Sweden, 3-2 to Slovakia and 11-0 to Finland.
Canada and Italy history
The matchup has been lopsided for years. Canada has won 32 of the 37 meetings between the countries across all competitions, with Italy taking three and the teams splitting two draws. Canada also holds a +155 goal differential in those games and beat Italy 6-1 when they were grouped together in 2022.
Dylan Cozens, Zach Whitecloud and Mercer were on that Canadian team, and Mercer had two assists in the 6-1 win. Canada carried that history into Saturday as a -5.5 puckline favorite with the total set at 7.0, a number that fits a game expected to stay tilted toward the side that owns the most medals and gold medals in World Championship history.
For Italy, the task is to hang around long enough to make the favorite work. For Canada, the opener already showed enough scoring spread to suggest the group stage may be more about managing margin than finding offense.
