Canada beats China in Olympic men's hockey to wrap up round robin

BEIJING — Kent Johnson and Eric O’Dell had a goal and an assist each as Canada beat China 5-0 in men’s hockey on Sunday at the Beijing Olympics.

Ben Street, Adam Tambellini and Corban Knight also scored for the Canadians (2-1), who got 26 saves from Matt Tomkins. Tyler Wotherspoon and Josh Ho-Sang both added two assists.

Paris O’Brien stopped 39 shots for China, which is taking part of the tournament for the first time. The hosts were outscored a combined 16-2 through three round-robin games, but did keep things close in Saturday’s 3-2 loss to Germany.

And while Canada’s roster of non-NHLers had a significant territorial advantage in a game that was never really in doubt, the hosts didn’t have to deal with the likes of Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar after the league withdrew from the Games because of COVID-19 concerns.

The Canadians, who beat Germany 5-1 on Thursday before losing to the United States 4-2 on Saturday, finished second in Group A. Despite the victory Sunday night, Canada will now play in the tournament’s qualification round as the No. 5 seed in a rematch against China on Tuesday for a spot in the quarterfinals after Finland beat Sweden 4-3 in overtime and the U.S. downed Germany 3-2.

The U.S., Russian Olympic Committee and Finland automatically advanced to the quarters as group winners, while Sweden also moved on with the best record among the eight remaining countries.

Of the 25 players representing China at the Beijing Games, 18 were born or grew up in North America, including 11 with strong ties to Canada, while one is Russian. The team is made up of the roster from state-owned Kunlun Red Star of the Russian-based KHL, a franchise created to boost the country’s shallow