HELSINKI — Josh Anderson and his Team Canada linemates have been clicking since they first stepped on the ice together at the world men's hockey championship.

Anderson had the eventual game-winning goal and added an assist as Canada downed Italy 6-1 on Sunday. Anderson said that he had chemistry with Adam Lowry and Cole Sillinger as soon as they began practising together a week ago.

"We are all doing what we do best on the ice, and we are helping the team create scoring chances," said Anderson. "We also take a lot of pride in being dependable in the defensive zone, and we are a pretty confident line right now and we are only going to get better.”

Noah Gregor had an short-handed goal for Canada (2-0), while Travis Sanheim, Nicolas Roy, Kent Johnson, and Dysin Mayo also scored.

Chris Driedger made 11 saves in Canada's net for the win.

Canada plays Slovakia (1-1) on Monday. Head coach Claude Julien said that the Canadians have used their first two games of the tournament to try and gel as a team but that they must take Slovakia seriously.

“(Slovakia) is a team that we have seen at the Olympics, and they won bronze there, so it is a team that we need to respect," said Julien. "They are also coming off a loss (to Germany on Friday), so no doubt they will come out and play their best game against us. We need to be ready for that challenge.”

Phil Pietroniro opened the scoring for Italy (0-2) 12:57 into the game. Goalie Justin Fazio stopped 24 shots for the Italians.

Neither team scored on the power play, with Canada going 0 for 1 and Italy 0 for 4.

Anderson scored 8:15 into the second period to break a 1-1 tie as Canada reeled off five unanswered goals for the win.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2022.