Canada Advances To Spengler Final While Juniors Regroup Following Tough Loss
Posted December 30, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Goals by Dale McTavish and Simon Gamache broke a tie in the third period as Canada defeated Adler Mannheim of Germany 4-2 to complete the round-robin portion of the Spengler Cup hockey tournament with a 4-0 record Sunday.
Canada will play Salavat Yulaev Ufa in the title game of the annual club tournament on Monday. Canada edged the Russian club 3-2 on Saturday and the rematch promises to be just as competitive.
Ryan Keller and Andre Benoit also scored in Canada ‘s latest win, and Sebastien Caron was the winning goaltender.
Free-agent goalie Curtis Joseph, who gets the start in the title game, and AHL skaters Simon Gamache and Danny Syvret are three of a group that was assembled hastily but has quickly become a cohesive unit.
Salavat Yulaev Ufa, a Russian powerhouse with a budget of US$50 million and the supplier of at least half the skaters on the Russian national team, promises a formidable challenge.
“As for motivation, I don’t think we’ll need to do much to get the guys up for this one,” said Simpson. “We’ve really grown as a team.”
The 40-year-old Joseph had offers from NHL teams for the 2007-2008 season but opted to remain at the family home north of Toronto to see what developed.
“This is a step in the right direction,” he said. “I wasn’t playing at all.
“If something comes up (in the NHL) halfway through the season, I’ll go for it.”
The Spengler Cup is the biggest club tournament in the world. With all the Canadians playing in the Swiss elite league, organizers granted Hockey Canada permission to enter a team and it has done so since the 1980s.
Meanwhile, a much younger Canadian team was also busy Sunday, trying to mentally put the wheels back and get back in the race Sunday at the world junior hockey championships. Their bid to win a fourth straight gold medal for their country at the tournament was still alive despite a 4-3 loss to Sweden the previous night.
But it was wasting a 2-0 lead against the Swedes early in the third period and the breakdowns that followed that still irked them.
“The emotions I’ve seen today is the kids were angry with themselves and what happened,” Canadian head coach Craig Hartsburg said Sunday after practice at Pardubice Arena. “Nobody is feeling sorry for themselves because nobody is feeling sorry for us. Now they want to move on and get ready for the next game.”
Their next game is against lightly-regarded and winless Denmark on Monday in the final game of the preliminary round of Pool A. It’s a win Canada (2-1) needs and a victory that could still propel them to first in the pool, but only if the Czech Republic (2-1) beats Sweden (3-0) in an earlier game by five goals or less.
Canada would then finish first on a goal differential of plus-2 between the three tied teams. But the Czechs will need outstanding goaltending and all the adrenaline the home fans can give them to topple the big and fast Swedes. If the Swedes win, they finish first; get the bye to Friday’s semifinals and an extra day of rest as their reward.
Canada would then have get to the semis via a quarter-final win Wednesday against the third-place team from Pool B, which will be either Russia or Finland . The U.S. has already clinched first in Pool B.
“We’re going to have to be mentally strong tomorrow either way,” Canadian defenceman Logan Pyett said. “Win or lose, the Swedes, we’re going to try and not pay attention to that and just focus on ourselves and our own game. If the Swedes win, it’s still going to be a challenging game against Denmark and we’re going to want to put our best effort in and get prepared for the next game because I think it will be tougher.”
Steve Mason will get his second start of the tournament Monday after a 22-save performance in a 2-0 shutout of Slovakia on Day 2 of the tournament.
