Canada Loses To Finland at Ice Hockey Worlds

Canada suffers 5-1 defeat to Finland at ice hockey world championships[/caption]

For Team Canada at the Ice Hockey World Championships, the road ahead is now a little tougher after suffering a 5-1 defeat to Finland.

Janne Pesonen scored for Finland as did Teuvo Teravainen, Eeli Tolvanen who each scored once, Mikko Rantanen scored twice. Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored team Canada’s only goal.

Canada had a perfect record until yesterday’s game when it came to penalty killing that was until Mikko Rantanen broke it after scoring on a power play to give the Fins a 2-0 lead as the first period came to an end.

Canada’s Bo Horvat, its top penalty killer, said,

“There was nothing different, I think they just moved it around pretty quick. They’ve got a lot of skilled forwards out there and they made some good plays.”

Bill Peters, coach for Canada added,

“They were able to expose some seams. They did a good job of quick puck movement and had a real good plan. We’re going to have to make some adjustments. We didn’t handle the puck pressure up top very well.”

IIHF Wolrds 2018

The win moved Finland up to 2nd place in Group B, just a single point behind the U.S. Canada is in 4th, but that could change as they have played one game less than the others.

For Canada, there are two remaining games in the round robin part of the tournament, one against Latvia on Monday and one against Germany on Tuesday. To advance to the quarter-finals, Canada will need to finish in the top four of their group.

Finland scored their opening goal at 8:50 of the 1st after Canada’s Brayden Schenn accidentally put the puck in his own goal. Canada managed to tie the game at 10:55 after Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored, but after that, Finland controlled the game.

After Josh Bailey was handed an interference penalty, Finland’s Janne Pesonen put the puck past Curtis McElhinney to make it 3-1 at 13:58 and less than 3 minutes later, Mikko Rantanen scored and made it 4-1 at 16:35.

Commenting on how Canada performed, Coach Peters said,

“We didn’t establish a rhythm. I thought they did a better job establishing their team game before we did.”

Canada served 22 minutes in the penalty box, and it cost them dearly. Connor McDavid, who served a double minor during the 3rd period for high sticking said,

“When you’re behind people like that, you’re going to hook and hold and you’re going to take some penalties.”

Curtis McElhinney made his 4th start in the net for Canada after having a day off after Canada beat Norway 5-0 on Thursday. After the second goal by Rantanen, he was pulled and replaced by Darcy Kuemper. McElhinney raked up 6 saves for his time in the net.

Finnish goaltender, Harri Sateri has 30 saves in the game and narrowly avoided a shutout if not for Pageau’s first-period goal.

After the San Jose Sharks were eliminated in the second round of the NHL playoffs, Marc-Edouard Vlasic joined Aaron Ekblad’s line. He too kthe place of Thomas Chaboy from the Ottawa Senators. Commenting, Vlasic said,

“I’m here to win. Tonight was embarrassing and that’s not us, 5-1 — that’s unacceptable.”

Canada will next play Latvia this Monday and then on Tuesday will play their last round-robin game against Germany.