Canada opens worlds with win over Slovakia

Chris Johnston HELSINKI The Canadian Press Published Friday, May. 04, 2012 11:30AM EDT Last updated Friday, May. 04, 2012 5:38PM EDT

Brent Sutter was beaming after watching his Canadian team open the IIHF World Hockey Championship on a winning note.

But the 3-2 victory over Slovakia didn't come without some cause for concern.

Forward Alex Burrows suffered an apparent concussion just before the midway point of Friday's game, leaving his availability for the rest of the tournament up in the air. He was expected to be re-evaluated by team doctors on Saturday and was listed as questionable for a game later that night against the U.S.

Otherwise, head coach Sutter liked most of what he saw from a Canadian team that will need to find itself during the round robin after having little time to prepare as a group.

For our first game of the tournament, it was certainly a really strong effort, he said.

Canada controlled much of the play against Slovakia and sustained a balanced offensive attack. The goals came from Jamie Benn, Jordan Eberle and Andrew Ladd players that were slotted on different forward lines.

Sutter was forced to do some juggling after losing Burrows and chose to insert Evander Kane in his place on a unit with Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

The Vancouver Canucks winger was injured during his first ever game with the national team. He accidentally collided with Marcel Hascak in the offensive zone and appeared to hit his head on the ice. General manager Kevin Lowe called the injury real high upper body and one teammate said privately he thought it was a concussion.

He was doing OK, Lowe said of Burrows. He was doing fine in the dressing room.

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Canada opens worlds with win over Slovakia