Canada 6 - Finland 3: Defensive errors costly as World Champions give lesson in cool finishing

Quarter-final brings rematch with Team USA

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Finland’s final Qualification Round match against Canada had none of the blood-and-thunder drama of Sunday’s 3-2 comeback victory against Team USA, but it did have an all-too-clear script: Finland attacked, Canadian goalie Pascal Leclaire saved most of what came near him, and then Canada took the puck up the other end of the ice and routinely punished the Finnish forwards for wasting chances and the Finnish defensemen for slack marking.
      Canada won 6-3 (2-1, 2-0, 2-2) in the Halifax Metro Center and totally deserved their prize of a quarter-final encounter with Norway.
      It was a masterclass lesson in energy-efficient hockey, with Dany Heatley offering the “best-practices” example: largely invisible for long periods, Heatley popped up in the right place at the right time and scored two goals, just like that.
     
The Finnish Lions’ hopes of winning the match and the group were seriously dented within a minute of the first face-off, when Ryan Getzlaf waltzed through the Finnish defence to lift the puck over Niklas Bäckström and stop the clock at 0.33.
      It was Getzlaf’s first goal in the tournament, to go alongside six previous assists. He added a couple more assists last night, indicating that he is a playmaker to be reckoned with.
      In spite of the shock opening, the Finns were able to stay with the physically powerful Canadians in the first period, when Leclaire had more to do than Bäckström.
     
The two goals that followed were unusual in that both were scored short-handed. Antti Pihlström collected a loose pass in the centre zone, skated purposefully forward and blasted the puck past Leclaire, giving the goal camera a serious headache in the process.
      That made it 1-1 at 5:39, but within four minutes Canada had gone back in front through Shane Doan, aided and abetted by marking errors from Janne Niskala and Ville Koistinen and an extraordinary lack of enthusiasm by Teemu Selänne, who watched the dénouement from a couple of metres away.
      In the second period Dany Heatley and Patrick Sharp increased the Canadian lead to a comfortable 4-1.
      Sharp’s goal was the third short-handed strike of the night.
      Doan and Heatley each collected a second goal in the final period, and in between them Pihlström pulled one back at 5-2, but it was all theatre by this stage, and Tuomo Ruutu’s goal at 59:37 was merely a statistical detail.
      The Finns did have a bit of bad luck along the way. Sami Lepistö appeared to head the 5-1 goal past Bäckström with his helmet after he got in the way of Doan's shot, which was otherwise going well wide.
     
Canada were good value for 6 -3 or better, if only because they played to their strengths and were able to contain the faster Finnish forwards at those moments when it looked briefly as though the visitors might get on top.
      Since Bäckström did not have a complete howler of a game, the fact that he faced only 22 shots and Leclaire had to deal with 27 might indicate that the Finns need to learn to bury the puck a little more often. Scoring 19 goals in six games so far is nothing to write home about. Canada, by comparison, have bagged 35 from their half-dozen matches.
     
Fortunately, all is not lost. Finland’s head coach Doug Shedden and his staff must now galvanise the side - who were admittedly perhaps a little tired after the USA match - for the quarter-final on Wednesday.
      One serious consideration will have to be the showing of the first line, who were strangely anaemic on Monday.
      And defensive lapses like those we saw yesterday will have to be eradicated, or the Americans will take advantage - and Finland cannot rely on any more “phantom goals” to rescue their cause: so careful have the IIHF become that even the most obvious goals are now routinely scrutinised to see that the puck actually did go between the uprights.
     
The quarter-final line-ups were decided after Monday’s matches, and will be as follows: Canada will play Norway, since the Germans snuffed out Latvia's hopes with a 5-3 win in the late game in Group F.
      Finland will play third-placed Team USA, who took out their frustrations on Norway with a 9-1 hammering.
      From Qualification Group E, winners Russia will play Switzerland, whom they beat 5-3 in the last group match, while the Czech Republic play third-placed Sweden. These two teams met for the first time on Sunday, and Sweden won, again by a 5-3 margin.
      The matches will be played in the same venues - Halifax and Quebec City - of the respective Qualification Groups, but the the two Halifax teams who progress will move to Quebec City for the semi-finals and medals matches.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finland still undefeated at Ice Hockey World Championships, but only just (12.5.2008)

Links:
  IIHF World Championships 2008 (Wikipedia)

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