Canada dumps U.S. 4-1 to advance to final of world junior hockey championship

Turbo · #1 01-04-2008, 04:17 PM

Canada dumps U.S. 4-1 to advance to final of world junior hockey championship

Quote:

PARDUBICE, Czech Republic - Canada is a win away from another gold medal at the world junior hockey championship and this time it's Sweden, not Russia, standing in the way.
The Canadians beat the U.S. 4-1 in Friday's semifinal and will face Sweden in the final Saturday (2 p.m. ET). It will be a rematch for Canada, which lost 4-3 to the Swedes in a preliminary Pool A game last weekend.
Canada (5-1) is chasing a fourth straight gold medal in this tournament after beating the Russians in the last three finals and has reached the championship game for a seventh straight year.
Shawn Matthias of the Belleville Bulls, Brad Marchand of the Halifax Mooseheads, Colton Gillies of the Saskatoon Blades and Calgary Hitmen defenceman Karl Alzner scored four unanswered goals for Canada before James vanRiemsdyk replied for the U.S.
"We had our best game by far," Alzner said. "Right from start to finish, we wanted it so bad and we came to play."
Canadian goaltender Steve Mason, who was a controversial choice to start over Jonathan Bernier, earned the win and was named player of the game.
The Columbus Blue Jackets draft pick, who was traded to the OHL's Kitchener Rangers by the London Knights prior to Friday's game, played with a more confident demeanour than he had in Canada's 4-2 quarter-final win over Finland, particularly in the second period when Canada was outshot 13-6.
Sweden beat Russia 2-1 in overtime in an earlier semifinal.
The Canadians played their best game of the tournament so far Friday as they passed the puck crisply and attacked the U.S. zone with authority.
Another horde of Canadians filled Pardubice Arena to cheer them on as at least half of the announced crowd of 5,621 were wearing red and white.
As the home team, the U.S. had right of last line change. The Canadians had to play airtight defence to shut down the tournament's top-scoring trio of vanRiemsdyk, Colin Wilson and Jordan Schroeder until head coach Craig Hartsburg could get Brandon Sutter's checking line on the ice.
VanRiemsdyk, the No. 2 pick in this year's NHL draft by the Philadelphia Flyers, ended Mason's shutout bid at 13:26 of the third period when he banged in a rebound.
Marchand padded Canada's lead 20 seconds after Gillies beat U.S. goaltender Jeremy Smith five-hole on a shot from the left faceoff circle to make it 3-0 for Canada at 7:04 of the third period.
Alzner's shot from the blue-line beat Smith for a power-play goal at the midway point of the second period and made it 2-0 for Canada. Hard work cycling the puck down low by Kyle Turris and Marchand drew the American defence down and gave Alzner the time to line up a laser shot.
Matthias put Canada on the scoreboard at 2:46 of the second period on a give-and-go with winger Matt Halischuk. Behind the goal-line Matthias tapped the puck over to Halischuk and drove the front of the net to collect Halischuk's backhand pass and beat Smith.
Notes(at) - Canada is 27-5-all-time against the U.S. at the world junior championship and 6-1 against them in playoff games . . . The U.S. has 20 NHL draft picks on its roster and seven of them are first-round selections compared to Canada's 17 and seven respectively . . . The average height and weight of the Canadian team is six feet and 187 pounds, while the U.S. is six feet, 193 pounds.

That sucks for the US, but Canada has a great team so kudos to them.

Babe_Ruth · #2 01-04-2008, 05:29 PM

What a game, it was very close for the first two periods especially in the first period, but in the second we took a 2-0 lead, then in the third we scored 2 goals in like 40 seconds. Mason really played well, and it's ashame he didn't get that shutout. Now we will be trying to get our fourth straight goal medal tommorow against Sweden, who are the only team to defeat us in the last four years. Should be a good game and hopefully we can win.

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