Canada's top line shines in World Cup final Game 1 win against Team Europe

— -- TORONTO -- Team Canada fought off its poorest performance of the World Cup of Hockey and found a way to edge Europe 3-1 in Game 1 of the best-of-three final Tuesday night.

A masterpiece this was not.

Whether it was because the Air Canada Centre was lifeless and the players got spooked, or perhaps the Canadians had trouble getting fired up to face a Europe team that had never existed before this tournament, the Olympic champions looked unmotivated at times, were sloppy with the puck, and lacked the kind of four-line cohesion we had seen since the start of the tournament.

And yet perhaps it just goes to show the disparity in talent between these two teams: Europe played a strong game Tuesday night, while Canada played well below its potential -- and still the result went in favor of the favorites.

Carey Price had something to do with that. The 2014-15 Hart and Vezina Trophy winner made a number of difficult saves to keep Europe at bay.

It's a also a reminder of how daunting it is to beat this Canadian side, which has now gone 11-0 since the start of the 2014 Sochi Olympics (and won 15 consecutive games in best-on-best hockey dating back to the Vancouver Olympics in 2010). Even when a team is able to finally wrestle the puck away from Team Canada and generate chances, like Europe did plenty of times on Tuesday night, it finds the best goalie in the world waiting for them. It's almost not fair.

Brad Marchand and Steven Stamkos scored in the opening frame for Canada, but Europe's? Tomas Tatar?made things interesting with a second-period goal for Europe.

Team Canada head coach Mike Babcock looked none too pleased as the second period played itself out, Canada easily playing its worst 20 minutes of the tournament.

Bergeron's third-period tally -- how great has that Sidney Crosby unit been? -- ended the suspense.

The crowd certainly didn't help. There were empty seats throughout the rink even though officially it was a sellout, which means lots of people paid for tickets but had better things to do on this night. It's worth noting the Toronto Blue Jays, trying to cement a wild-card spot in the final week of the baseball season, were opening a series with AL East rival Baltimore just down the street.

The point was hammered home during a TV timeout when the giant scoreboard in the Air Canada Centre showed Mario Lemieux's winning goal from the deciding game of the 1987 Canada Cup final, the crowd at Copps Coliseum that night in Hamilton absolutely delirious. It was electric.

You got absolutely none of that on this night in the opening of this World Cup final. Perhaps that has to do with the opposition. Team Europe is a terrific story, but let's not kid ourselves, it's hard for Canadian hockey fans to muster much animosity for a team that didn't exist before this tournament.

Of course, had Europe prevailed on this night, that might have added all kinds of intrigue in this final. Maybe the Europeans can pull it off Thursday night in Game 2. But I suspect Team Canada, after a talking-to from Babcock, will be much better and energized to end the tournament.

Three stars

1.?Carey Price, G, Team Canada: Rarely during this Team Canada run that dates back to Sochi has the Montreal Canadiens star had to make the difference, but he certainly did on this night. Canada needed him. And he delivered with his usual poise and confidence.

2.? Anze Kopitar, C, Team Europe: The Los Angeles Kings captain was all over the puck, having an impactful night that gave Canada fits.

3.? Patrice Bergeron, RW, Team Canada: Had a beauty of an assist in setting up the opening goal and then scored the back-breaker midway through the third period to cement the win.