OLYMPICS: McDavid records three assists as Canada shuts out Czechia in Group A opener

MILANO -- Welcome to the Olympics, No. 97.

Connor McDavid recorded three assists during an impactful Olympic debut on Thursday morning as Team Canada opened their preliminary Group A schedule at Milano Cortina 2026 with a decisive 5-0 shutout victory over Czechia at Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena.

The Oilers captain added a team-high six shots over 18:04 of ice time, picking up his first Olympic point on Macklin Celebrini's opening goal in the final seconds of the first period before he added two helpers in the final frame on tallies for Nathan MacKinnon and Nick Suzuki that secured Canada's victory.

Making his first-career Olympic appearance and his first in Red & White since scoring the winning goal at the 4 Nations Face-Off, McDavid made the wait for NHL players' return to the tournament worth it by putting in a terrific individual opening performance that summed up a complete team effort from Canada.

Five different players scored for Canada, while defenceman Thomas Harley posted two assists.

Jordan Binnington followed up his heroic effort at 4 Nations by making 26 saves for his first Olympic shutout, extending Canada's streak of not allowing a goal at the tournament with their best players available to 224:19, winning 11 straight games dating back to the preliminary stages in 2010 in Vancouver.

Canada improved to 1-0-0-0 and will take on Switzerland on Friday afternoon at 1:10 pm MST.

With NHL players making their first appearance at the Olympics in 12 years, the excitement was noticeable from Canada right from the opening puck drop, and McDavid made an impact on his first shift alongside linemates Macklin Celebrini and Tom Wilson in the opening minutes of his debut at the tournament.

The Oilers captain tossed a tone-setting check on Lukáš Sedlák before drawing a holding call at the other end to send Canada to an early power play that they couldn't convert on their first look from the star-studded top unit of McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Sam Reinhart.

The Czechs stood firm in the opening period until McDavid picked up his first Olympic point with an assist after Macklin Celebrini kept his stick below the crossbar to deflect Cale Makar's shot past Lukáš Dostál with 5.7 seconds left before the intermission, giving Canada the 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.

McDavid led Canada with seven minutes of ice time in the opening frame.

After Mitch Marner connected with Mark Stone 6:40 into the second period to make it 2-0, McDavid had two incredible chances to extend the lead to three, being denied emphatically by Dostál on a two-on-one with Brandon Hagel before later having the Czech netminder get a piece of his wrist shot off the rush.

Five of McDavid's team-leading six shots came during the middle stanza.

Bo Horvat pushed Canada into a three-goal lead with under three minutes left in the middle frame, before Canada & McDavid took control in the final 20 minutes by adding two more tallies from MacKinnon and Suzuki, both featuring McDavid assists, as he grew his points tally early in the tournament.

The Czechs had no answer for Canada's power play in the third when McDavid sauced a pass through the crease in tight to MacKinnon for the routine finish with under eight minutes gone in the frame, with Crosby picking up the secondary helper on a stacked scoresheet featuring three of the best in the game.

Over six minutes later, Suzuki redirected home another McDavid pass to make it 5-0 and give No. 97 his third assist, capping off the scoring for Canada.

McDavid's three assists put him into a tie for the tournament's scoring lead with Slovakia's Juraj Slafkovsky (2G, 1A) and Sweden's Rasmus Dahlin (3A).