Canada failed to capitalize on a brace from Brett Connolly to get the Spengler Cup off to a good start on Monday, beating HC Sparta Praha 3-2 in Davos, Switzerland.

Travis Green’s side will have to pull themselves together quickly as they only have one game left in the prelims.

“Overall it was pretty obvious that we weren’t used to playing together, but our sense of urgency has grown a lot stronger and that has to be part of our band identity,” Green said, according to Hockey Canada. That feeling really kicked in in the last 40 minutes and I think if we’d had five more minutes we probably would have hit the mark.

“We have a whole new team; It’s part of the process of a new group, we plan to do better day by day.

However, Canada won’t stand a chance of going very far without a better performance from their steward between the posts. 137-game National Hockey League veteran Michael Hutchinson just couldn’t keep up in front of the Canadian net. In just 19 attempts, he flinched three times.

Czech striker Michal Repik was his biggest tormentor. He shook the ropes behind Hutchinson twice, including once on the power play.

Daniel Pribyl also threaded the needle for Sparta Praha, a team that plays in the Czech Premier League.

“It was tough for us in the first half,” added veteran Tyler Ennis. We worked hard to get back into the game but we were too far behind. I think we played better than them for about 50 minutes, but it was the first 10 minutes that made the difference.

The maple leaf framed 30 shots, but met a Josef Korenar in full possession of his means. The 24-year-old goaltender, who played with the Arizona Coyotes until last season, made 28 saves.

With the help of former Montreal Canadiens Daniel Carr, Connolly closed up on a goal late in the second half. A few minutes earlier he had scored his first goal of the game.

Partially to blame for the two successes of the maple leaf was Quebec defender Thomas Grégoire.

Canada will look to improve their game on Tuesday afternoon when they face home side HC Davos.