Canada defeats Finland 5:3 in dramatic Group A opener

It didn’t take long to see the first name pop up on the scoresheet, with Canadian Beckham Edwards doing the honours by becoming the first goal scorer of the game when he fired a shot from the right circle into the top corner of the Finland net to make it 1:0. "I got the puck from the defender and saw a spot in the top corner of the goal, so I shot. The whole line did a great job," said the scorer of the first goal. And Canada was just getting started, as some eight minutes later, Keaton Verhoeff doubled their lead. In the 15th minute of the game, Oliver Suvanto sent the puck from behind the net into the slot where Oscar Hemming made no mistake and opened the books for Finland. The goal boosted the Nordic team’s confidence, and the Finns tied the score late in the period thanks to Jiko Laitinen.

Canada had another strong start to the second period and appeared to regain their lost lead, but the goal was disallowed after video review. The score remained tied, and the game got more and more physical with penalties being dealt on both sides of the ice. However, Canada did manage to get back into the driver’s seat before the end of the middle frame thanks to Ryan Lin, who buried Adam Valentini’s cross-ice pass to make it 3:2.

Canada extended their lead to 4:2 eight minutes into the third period when Dimian Zhilkin fired through Gammals’ legs, but Finland wasn’t out just yet — in the 57th minute, Vanhatalo blasted a shot from the right circle to make it 4:3 and brought down the deficit to just a single goal. The Nordic team pushed for an equaliser but couldn’t break through. Instead, Canada sealed the win with an empty-net goal by Ethan Belchetz.