Canada In World Championship Final After Exciting Win Over Russia

Canada has won the hockey World Championship for the last two consecutive years and were favourites heading into the semi-finals against Russia. The Canadians knew that Russia was a tough team to beat but appeared to be caught off-guard at just how well the Russians played at the start of the game which took place at the LANXESS arena in Cologne, Germany.

Russia played hard and was the first team to score to get vital points on the board. They went on to score again and then came up with some good defending to keep Canada at 0.

With a 0-2 lead, Russia looked like they were going to eliminate the mighty Canadians but with just 20 minutes left to go, Canada seemed to find inspiration from a light hearted comment in the room that helped them get their act together just in time.

IIHF Worlds 2017

Jon Cooper who is coaching Canada for the first time said that the atmosphere in the room was very tense as the players realized they were 0-2 down and had just 20 minutes to turn things around. However the mood changed quickly when someone blurted out ‘we have them exactly where we want them to’. That light hearted comment seemed to spark the Canadians who then came out with all guns blazing and scored twice quickly to even the score.

The Russians gave it their all but in the end were unable to stop Canada from scoring another 2 goals which meant Canada finished comfortably with a 4-2 lead to secure yet another spot in the World Championship final. Canada will now be looking for a three-peat performance and for that they will have to win against Sweden on 28 May. Sweden made the finals after taking out Finland 4-1. Russian will take on Finland to play for the bronze medal.

Canada will go into the finals as the favourite and if they can play like they did in the last quarter against Russia, they will be very hard to beat.

In a statement, Wayne Simmonds, who plays as a forward for Canada said

The first period was more of a feeling-out process, Second period — that wasn’t us. We wanted to show what we could really do. I thought the third period illustrated that

Coach Cooper praised his side for their great fightback and stated that it was one of the greatest ice hockey games that he had been a part of.