Canada opens Olympic men's hockey tournament with win over Germany

Ben Street had a goal and an assist as Canada's Olympic men's hockey team stormed out of the gate early before cruising to a 5-1 victory over Germany on Thursday at the Beijing Games.

Alex Grant, Daniel Winnik, Maxim Noreau and Jordan Weal also scored in both countries' tournament opener, while Eric O'Dell and Kent Johnson added two assists each. Edward Pasquale made 23 saves.

Tobias Rieder replied for Germany, which upset another group of Canadian non-NHLers in the semifinals of the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang. Mathias Niederberger stopped 22 shots.

In a surprising twist, Hockey Canada announced moments before warmup that Claude Julien, who had been tabbed to coach the team before breaking his ribs during training camp in Switzerland, had joined the group and would resume his duties following the game. Jeremy Colliton, who stepped in to fill Julien's void, will now revert back to an assistant's role.

WATCH | Claude Julien returns for Canada:

The United States thumped China 8-0 in Group A's other game.

The game at Wukesong Sports Centre, which hosted basketball at the 2008 Summer Olympics, didn't feature the star power hockey fans envisioned just two months ago after the NHL withdrew from the event because of COVID-19 concerns.

And while the likes of Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Leon Draisaitl and Tim Stutzle were thousands of kilometres away for the 9:10 p.m. local start in front of a few hundred flag-waving Chinese spectators, the game still had name recognition from a Canadian perspective.

Eric Staal, who won gold in 2010 and is looking for another NHL shot, is the captain, while Owen Power and Mason McTavish, the first and third overall picks at the 2021 NHL draft, are also on the roster.

But it was Canada's lesser names leading the way on this night.

The Germans have 10 returning players, including former NHLer Dominik Kahun, from the team that advanced to the 2018 gold-medal game with a 4-3 victory over Canada, which has O'Dell, Noreau and Mat Robinson back wearing the red Maple Leaf.

WATCH | Alex Grant opens the scoring for Canada after massive hit:

Canada came out flying in the first period Thursday on the smaller NHL-sized ice, with O'Dell — perhaps looking for revenge from four years ago — crushing blue-liner Marco Nowak with a clean, devastating hit behind the German net.

The puck was worked to the point, where Grant, listed as Canada's seventh defenceman, fired home the opener off the post and in at 4:43, with Nowak, who went to the locker room and didn't return, still trying to shake out the cobwebs.