Canada shuts out Germany after losing to Latvia

Canada responded to Friday's shootout loss to Latvia with a 3-0 victory over Germany on Sunday at the World Junior Championship in Canada's capital.

Ottawa-born defenseman Oliver Bonk opened the scoring with a power-play goal assisted by forwards Easton Cowan and Berkly Catton midway through the first period. Caden Price - another blue-liner - scored an insurance tally from rearguard Sawyer Mynio and forward Calum Ritchie with just under five minutes left in the third.

Canada forward Mathieu Cataford added an empty-netter in the final seconds.

The Canadians didn't dominate play until the final frame. The hosts tied Germany 9-9 in shots through 20 minutes and outshot the opponents 10-9 in the second period before doing so by a 17-7 margin in the third.

Canada goaltender Carter George stopped all 25 shots to pick up the win. He became the first Team Canada goaltender with shutouts in his first two world junior starts since Jake Allen in 2010, per Sportsnet. George also earned an assist on Cataford's empty-netter.

Germany netminder Nico Pertuch turned aside all but two of 36 shots in a losing effort.

Canada improved to 2-0-1-0 with the win, moving into a tie with the United States (and its identical record) for first place in Group A. Germany sits last in the group at 0-0-0-3. The Canadians opened their tourney with a 4-0 victory over Finland on Thursday before the upset loss to Latvia the next day.

The U.S. rolled past Germany 10-4 in its tournament opener Thursday. The Americans defeated Latvia 5-1 on Saturday before falling to Finland in overtime Sunday.

Canada and the U.S. will meet Tuesday night in a New Year's Eve clash to decide the group. It'll be the final game for all teams in the preliminary round.