Swedes, Finns take Day 3

Press Release

BRECLAV / ZNOJMO – Canada dropped its second game of the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship 4-2 to the Finns, while Sweden dominated Switzerland 7-2.

Canada – Finland 2-4 (1-0, 1-3, 0-1)

BRECLAV – Finland came back in a big way from its opening game defeat to the United States, holding Canada to two goals and playing a complete game on its way to a 4-2 victory.

“I think we grew as a team from the last game to this game and played well,” said forward Henrik Haapala. "We played well and skated hard.”



Canada came into the second period with a 1-0 lead, thanks to a goal by defenceman Matt Dumba with a second to go in the first period. But Finland answered back with a score of its own 5:07 into the second frame when Saku Salminen drove the puck on the Canadian net and dropped a pass back to Atte Makinen, who scored his team’s first goal of the tournament.

Canada’s Kerby Richel came back with a score less than thirty seconds later. His teammate Scott Laughton outskated Finnish defenceman Ville Pokka but couldn’t get enough of a handle on the puck to get it in the net, but the puck came out to Rychel who roofed it home to regain the lead.

Pokka made up for his mistake later in the period, burying a shot set up by a slap pass from Teuvo Teravainen. Then with under a minute remaining in the period, Canada found itself on a 5-3 penalty kill after Adam Pelech and Darnell Nurse were sent to the penalty box less than thirty seconds apart. The Finns took advantage, as Artturi Lehkonen scored the go-ahead goal to put his team ahead for good. Rasmus Kulmala added an insurance score in the third period as Finland spent the rest of the game bottling up the Canadian forwards.

Sweden – Switzerland 7-2 (3-0, 1-1, 3-1)

ZNOJMO – With a crushing 7-2 win over the Swiss, Sweden now has scored 15 goals in only two games and is looking primed for another deep run in the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship.

Gustav Possler had a hat trick, while captain Filip Forsberg, Sebastian Collberg, Matias Kalin, and Filip Sandberg added goals of their own as Sweden jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and did not let up.

The Swedes will play Latvia in their third preliminary round game, while Switzerland will have to face a Russian team that was upset today against Germany.

(Nathan can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)