Canada opens WJHC by thumping Finland
Posted December 26, 2011 6:11 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
EDMONTON, Alta. — The tune-up games aren’t over yet for Canada.
In a game that was hardly indicative of the strength of the opposition, Canada dominated the Finns in an 8-1 rout. Mark Stone scored a hat trick in the third period when he deposited a Jonathan Huberdeau rebound past Finnish goalie Christopher Gibson. The goal made the score 7-1 early in the final frame and put the exclamation mark on Canada’s victory.
While the score indicates it was a blowout, the first period was much closer.
Canada had all the pressure in the early going, testing Gibson with two quality scoring chances by Devante Smith-Pelly and Mark Scheifele in the early going. Moments later Stone tapped in a beautiful feed from Jonathan Huberdeau, who was standing behind the net.
Shortly thereafter, Team Canada’s little lightning in a bottle, Brendan Gallagher, knocked a puck out of midair to give Canada a 2-0 lead.
Sensing the tide was favouring the home side, Finland head coach Raimo Helminen called a timeout and it worked wonders. Perhaps intimidated by the pro-Canada crowd, the Finnish team finally began to settle in and took the game to the Canadians.
Less than 30 seconds after the timeout, Teemu Pulkkinen had a glorious chance in front. Standing only feet from Visentin’s net, Pulkkinen’s shot to the far side was seemingly heading for the corner before it hit Freddie Hamilton’s leg and ricocheted into the corner.
The Finns had two power plays midway through the first frame in which they created chances, but couldn’t find a way to get a goal. Many of their chances narrowly missed to Visentin’s left. The one time Finland did connect well enough to find the net, Visentin’s left pad kicked the puck out.
An early second period goal only awoke the Canadians. Alexander Ruutu stopped in the high slot, giving him a larger gap from defenceman Mark Pysyk, and fired a wrist shot to the near side top corner over Visentin’s glove.
The goal sparked Canada. Stone scored his second of the game less than two minutes later on a beauty feed. Stone found the open area to Gibson’s left and fired to the far side top corner.
Finland’s scoring chances gradually decreased after Stone’s goal took the wind out of their sails. The only other quality scoring chance was stopped by defenceman Scott Harrington, who was laying in the crease to Visentin’s right when a shot hit him in the shoulder.
Ryan Strome then made a beautiful individual rush that was cut down by a trip by Konsta Makinen. With Makinen in the box, Huberdeau put Canada up 4-1. Dougie Hamilton made it 5-1 with a seeing-eye point shot that Gibson couldn’t locate through a screen.
