Heatley Scores Winner In Final Minute To Give Canada 5-4 Win Over U.S.

Canada overcame its first true challenge at the IIHF World Hockey Championship but had some worrisome flaws exposed in the process.

Dany Heatley’s second goal of the game with 46.8 seconds left in the third period lifted Canada to a 5-4 victory over the U.S.

He one-timed a Rick Nash pass over the glove of Craig Anderson while falling to the ice for his tournament-leading sixth goal.

The speedy Americans were the more impressive team on Tuesday and would probably have walked out of the Metro Centre with a win if they had received better goaltending from starter Tim Thomas.

Brent Burns, Jonathan Toews and Derek Roy also scored for Canada (3-0).

Zach Parise, Patrick O’Sullivan, Dustin Brown and Jason Pominville replied for the U.S. (2-1).

In Tuesday’s other early game, Russia beat Denmark 4-1 in Quebec City. In evening action, the Czech Republic faced Italy in Quebec while and Slovenia met Latvia in Halifax.

The Metro Centre had a party-like atmosphere for the first time during this tournament. The game was a sellout at 9,192 and many fans brought bells and other noise-makers, and were eager to start a wave around the arena. They went nuts after Heatley scored the winner.

Canada was fortunate to find itself up 2-0 after getting outplayed in the opening 20 minutes.

The Americans drew two quick penalties and controlled the early portion of the game before Burns scored on one of Canada’s first chances. The puck came out to him at the point and he moved to the centre of the ice before snapping a shot through heavy traffic and by Thomas at 8:26.

It didn’t deter the U.S., which kept coming at Canada but was unable to solve Cam Ward. A quick pass sent Adam Burish in alone on the Canadian goalie but he couldn’t beat him on the glove hand, earning Ward a huge ovation.

Heatley made it 2-0 by scoring with 10.8 seconds to play in the first period. He knocked in a rebound from in-close.

Canada briefly looked like it might make this a rout when Toews scored 18 seconds into the second period. He had a nice second effort and beat Thomas high to put the home team up 3-0.

It had been smoke and mirrors to that point and the speedy Americans soon cut through the mirage. Parise and O’Sullivan scored 2:17 apart to cut the lead to 3-2.

O’Sullivan’s goal came at 3:09 on a breakaway after Tom Gilbert found Drew Stafford with a 150-foot pass and Stafford sent him in alone.

The Canadians were able to steady the ship after that and actually extended their lead to 4-2 on a goal by Roy at 3:29 of the third period. He slammed a nice Shane Doan past Anderson, who replaced Thomas in the U.S. goal after the second intermission.

But two impressive American power plays erased that lead as Brown and Pominville scored 36 seconds apart. Both finished off crisp passing plays while their team was playing with a man advantage.

A potential winning goal was on Jason Chimera’s stick late in the third period but his shot sailed over an empty net with Anderson down and out.

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