Dein erstes Forum » rk on as a team.The defeat to the Raiders put a dampen

TORONTO -- Brad Marchand and Steven Stamkos scored in the first period and Canada cruised to a 3-1 win over Team Europe in Game 1 of the World Cup of Hockey finals on Tuesday night.Game 2 in the best-of-three series is Thursday night.Patrice Bergerons goal midway through the third period created a two-goal cushion.Carey Price finished with 32 saves for the Canadians, who have won two straight Olympic gold medals and 15 consecutive best-on-best hockey games since losing to the U.S. at the 2010 Vancouver Games.Slovakias Tomas Tatar scored his third goal in two games 7 minutes into the second period to get Europe within one.Jaroslav Halak, who is also from Slovakia, stopped 35 shots for the unique team made up of eight European nations outside of the continents traditional powers.The Canadians were playing at home, but didnt seem to get much of an emotional boost in the Toronto Maple Leafs arena, where there were a lot of empty seats and suites.The NHL and NHL Players Association combined to revive the event, which hasnt been held since 2004, with a twist. They created Team Europe and Team North America, a squad made up of players 23 and younger from the U.S. and Canada.The format created a highly competitive eight-team field, but as Canada coach Mike Babcock said earlier in the day, The World Cup is great. Its not the Olympics. Lets not get confused.There was no confusion about who had more talent on the ice Tuesday night, but Europe got off to a strong start and put pressure on a star-studded squad that has been behind just twice in five games and for a little more than a minute each time against the U.S. and Russia.Price had to make three saves and face a power play in the first 21 seconds of the game.Shortly after killing off the penalty, Bergeron carried the puck up the middle of the ice, faded to the right and passed across the crease to set up Marchands fourth goal of the tournament 2:33 into the game. The Boston Bruins teammates have been playing on a line with Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby, and the trio rank among the top three in World Cup scoring.Another Bruin, Zdeno Chara, was careless with the puck later in the opening period and it was costly. Ryan Getzlaf snatched the puck from Chara near center ice along the boards and faked a shot at the top of the left circle, leading to a tap-in goal for Stamkos on the right side of the net.Crosbys second assist of the night and his World Cup-high ninth point helped Canada to a 3-1 lead.He shot the puck on the left side of the net, got to the carom and circled back to set up Bergeron in front of the net.The Canadians didnt relax with the lead, attacking on offense and backchecking on defense to prevent Europe from having hope of coming back even when it pulled Halak late in the game.Team Europe was without one of its key players, Marian Gaborik, who suffered a foot injury in a semifinal win over Sweden that will keep him out of the Los Angeles Kings lineup for eight weeks. Gaborik was replaced in the lineup by Mikkel Boedker, the only skater on the ice making his first appearance in the two-week tournament. Custom Arizona Diamondbacks Jerseys . The Nashville Predators were glad their captain was still on their side. Weber had a goal and two assists, and Roman Josi scored the shootout winner to lift the Predators to a 4-3 win over the Flyers on Thursday night. Wilmer Flores Jersey . -- Ken Appleby made 32 saves for his first shutout of the season to lead the Oshawa Generals to a 2-0 win over the Belleville Bulls on Wednesday in Ontario Hockey League action. http://www.diamondbackssale.com/diamondbacks-luis-gonzalez-jersey/ . The International Olympic Committee released the official list of bid cities on Friday after the deadline for applications had passed. The candidates -- all previously announced in their own countries -- are: Almaty, Kazakhstan; Beijing; Krakow, Poland; Lviv, Ukraine; Oslo, Norway; and Stockholm. Jarrod Dyson Diamondbacks Jersey .C. -- Chris Thorburn thinks one of the reasons the Winnipeg Jets have been successful under new coach Paul Maurice is that theyre playing together as a team. Alex Avila Jersey . LOUIS -- St. The Warriors head into a bye after a solid five weeks that have turned around their NRL fortunes, but Simon Mannering says they cant afford to get comfortable.The 27-18 result over the Gold Coast Titans in Auckland on Saturday represented the Warriors fourth win in five matches.Their only defeat in that stretch was to competition leaders Cronulla via golden point defeat.Its a change from how they went into their first bye, which was preceded by three losses in four matches, the last a 38-12 thumping by Canberra in New Plymouth.Obviously getting four wins out of five was important for us, but we need to do that again after the bye, Mannering said.Were still not in a position to get comfortable at all. Well enjoy that little block, but there are a lot of things we can work on as a team.The defeat to the Raiders put a dampener on what was billed as hooker Issac Lukes returned to Taranaki.But beating the Titans meant the Warriors were able to mark Mannerings 250th NRL appearance in style.The 41-Test Kiwi came out at Mt Smart Stadium with his two children and was greeted by a standing ovation from the 15,000-strong crowd and an on-field haka.ddddddddddddI tried to keep it as low key as I could during the week, he said.To have the family out here and just all the messages of support from the guys I played alongside years ago - thats pretty humbling.Its definitely a night Ill treasure at the end of my career.Having given up the captaincy at the start of the year after six seasons in the job, he stood in against the Titans after regular skipper Ryan Hoffman was struck down by a virus.Mannering, 29, made his first-grade debut in 2005 and it was one of his ex-teammates, former wing Francis Meli, who presented him with match jumper against the Titans.I started my career sleeping on his couch, Mannering recalled.It was cool to have him there and to present me my jersey. Those are things you never forget. ' ' '