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After missed opportunities cost them against Russia, the Canadians made sure of them against Finland, especially on the power play. The Canadians struck three times with the man advantage, killed off all five of Finland’s power plays and won 5-1, with a late goal ruining Olivier Rodrigue’s shutout. Five different Canadians scored the goals, with Ryan Merkley, Barrett Hayton and captain Joe Veleno recording two assists each.
Penalties: 7:5. PP goals: 0:3. SH goals: 0:0.
Referees: Konc D., Stano - Synek, Šefčík. Attendance: 315.
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Canada held the edge in play in the first period and scored the only goal just past the five-minute mark. Jared McIsaac carried the puck across the blueline, dodged a check and fired a low shot toward the far post that Benoit-Olivier Groulx, driving hard to the net, got his stick on to deflect past Justus Annunen.
The one-goal lead remained for about 22 minutes but Canada busted the game open with two power-play goals in the second period. Up two men, Veleno carried the puck down low and found Calen Addison pinching in from the point. Addison buried it to make it 2-0. The Finns then had a chance to get back into it with a 5-on-3 of their own for exactly a minute, but they couldn’t capitalize. Then with Canada back on the power play, Nolan Foote made it 3-0 with 5:20 left in the middle period, waiting for Annunen to go down and then firing it upstairs from the slot.
The Canadians continued to roll in the third and added two more goals in the third period to make it 5-0 - Jack McBain with Canada’s third power-play marker of the game, and then Gabriel Fortier with a hardworking goal, banging in a rebound.
The only question was whether Olivier Rodrigue would record the shutout and the answer was no, as Mattias Maccelli got the Finns on the board with 1:41 to play, taking a cross-ice pass from Lenni Kilinen and firing a quick shot before the Canadian keeper could slide across. Nonetheless, the Canadians took the three points with a dominant effort, in which they out-shot the Finns 28-14.
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Canada held the edge in play in the first period and scored the only goal just past the five-minute mark. Jared McIsaac carried the puck across the blueline, dodged a check and fired a low shot toward the far post that Benoit-Olivier Groulx, driving hard to the net, got his stick on to deflect past Justus Annunen.
The one-goal lead remained for about 22 minutes but Canada busted the game open with two power-play goals in the second period. Up two men, Veleno carried the puck down low and found Calen Addison pinching in from the point. Addison buried it to make it 2-0. The Finns then had a chance to get back into it with a 5-on-3 of their own for exactly a minute, but they couldn’t capitalize. Then with Canada back on the power play, Nolan Foote made it 3-0 with 5:20 left in the middle period, waiting for Annunen to go down and then firing it upstairs from the slot.
The Canadians continued to roll in the third and added two more goals in the third period to make it 5-0 - Jack McBain with Canada’s third power-play marker of the game, and then Gabriel Fortier with a hardworking goal, banging in a rebound.
The only question was whether Olivier Rodrigue would record the shutout and the answer was no, as Mattias Maccelli got the Finns on the board with 1:41 to play, taking a cross-ice pass from Lenni Kilinen and firing a quick shot before the Canadian keeper could slide across. Nonetheless, the Canadians took the three points with a dominant effort.
Tommi Niemelä (head coach, Team Finland): “Everything went wrong, and I think everybody saw that. We weren’t ready mentally and I don’t know why. There was no support - not in the defensive zone, not in the attacking zone, not in the neutral zone … You know, 5-on-5, the power play, penalty-killing, they were all bad. We just have to put this game behind us - we’ll analyze some of the mistakes, but then we’ll turn the page and look ahead to tomorrow - it’s a big game.”
Brent Kisio (head coach, Team Canada): “We got better from last game, obviously. Last night was a decent starting point, but I thought we played a much better game today. The Finns worked hard and had some chances, but our guys worked hard too and luckily we took advantage of ours. Our penalty-killing was absolutely outstanding and our power play executed really well and took the game over for us. Special teams were the difference in this game, the power play and the PK. We know we still have to win another game to get to the semi-finals and we know we still have a big challenge in front of us.”