Music: {allcanada} Canada beats Finland to stay perfect at WJC

Monday, December 29, 2014

{allcanada} Canada beats Finland to stay perfect at WJC

Bangerz (Deluxe Version) - Miley Cyrus

MONTREAL – Linemates Sam Reinhart, Anthony Duclair and Max Domi had two points apiece and Zach Fucale made 27 saves to lead Canada to a 4-1 win against Finland on Monday in preliminary-round play at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship.

Reinhart (Buffalo Sabres) scored two goals, Duclair (New York Rangers) had a goal and an assist and Domi (Arizona Coyotes) had two assists for Canada (3-0-0-0), setting up a showdown for first place in Group A when it takes on the United States at Bell Centre on New Year's Eve (4 p.m. ET; NHL Network, TSN).

Captain Curtis Lazar (Ottawa Senators) also scored for Canada, which allowed its first goal of the tournament when Finland captain Artturi Lehkonen (Montreal Canadiens) scored at 18:26 of the second period.

Finland (0-0-1-2), the defending champion, is still without a win in the tournament and has scored three goals in three games.

Goaltender Juuse Saros (Nashville Predators) gave Finland a chance with 32 saves, but with no offensive support it was not enough.

The 27 saves for Fucale (Montreal Canadiens) were two shy of Canada's total in its first two games combined, and he needed to be sharp early in the game to withstand a stiff Finland attack.

Finland came in desperate for its first win of the tournament, and the result was a wildly entertaining start to the game with the teams going end to end and trading chances throughout the first period.

The one mistake made by Finland was a high-sticking penalty taken by defenseman Atte Makinen, and Canada capitalized to score its fourth power-play goal of the tournament on its eighth opportunity.

Reinhart made a crisp pass to the point to Shea Theodore (Anaheim Ducks) and cut directly to the front of the net. Theodore's shot arrived just as Reinhart did, and he tipped it off the post before putting the rebound behind Saros for his second of the tournament at 5:32.

What followed was a stretch of free-flowing, whistle-free hockey that had the Bell Centre crowd buzzing, with both Fucale and Saros being forced into a series of difficult saves to maintain the 1-0 score. Fucale made a point-blank save on Lehkonen about a minute after Reinhart's goal, then made another on 2015 NHL Draft prospect Mikko Rantanen on a shot from the slot 20 seconds later.

The second period had the same furious pace as the first, highlighted early on by a Saros pad save on Lazar off a Connor McDavid feed about five minutes in, and a Fucale stop on Kasperi Kapanen (Pittsburgh Penguins) after he wheeled completely around the Canada zone to create a shooting lane for himself just before the nine-minute mark.

Canada doubled its lead on a strange play after Domi and Finland defenseman Julius Honka (Dallas Stars) were tied up for about a minute deep in the Finland zone as Canada waited with the puck for them to get up and leave. Once that finally happened, Domi took a pass at the Finland blue line, re-entered the zone and sent a cross-ice feed to Duclair, who waited for Reinhart to free himself in front before feeding him for a tip in at 13:34.

Canada appeared to be heading to the second intermission with a comfortable two-goal lead, but a mistake by defenseman Samuel Morin (Philadelphia Flyers) gave Finland some hope heading into the third. Morin coughed the puck up coming out of his zone to Lehkonen, who grabbed the loose puck and cut across the front of the net to beat Fucale, ending Canada's shutout streak at 158:28.

Canada extended its lead to 3-1 at 11:15 of the third period when Domi cut to the front of the net and created a rebound for Duclair, who showed great patience to score his second of the tournament with Saros down and out.

Lazar made it 4-1 with his second of the tournament when he found the rebound of a Josh Morrissey (Winnipeg Jets) shot lying in the crease and poked it in before barreling into the net himself, improving Canada's power-play efficiency in the tournament to 50 percent (5-for-10).

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