Canada secured a spot in the Globe Hockey Championship semifinals and avenged a memorable loss to hosts Finland on Thursday.
Jack Quinn, Samuel Blais, Michael Carcoun and Tyler Toffoli scored as Canada won four-1 at Nokia Arena. Teemu Hartikainen scored late in the third period for Finland, but Toffoli answered much less than a minute later to seal the victory.
“We knew it was going to be a hard game,” mentioned Canadian goalie Samuel Montembo, who produced 27 saves. “But that huge third aim took the weight off our shoulders for us.”
Carcone produced it three- at two:54 of the third period following Quinn and Blais gave Canada an early lead.
Hartikainen lastly gave the property crowd some thing to cheer about when he tied the game with three:07 left, but Toffoli scored an empty netter with two:18 left.
“This is a wonderful group,” Montembeault mentioned. “Our aim coming into this tournament was to win the gold medal, and we knew we would have to perform challenging tonight to beat Finland in front of their fans.”
“We are 1 step closer to our aim, and now we are seeking forward to the semi-finals.”
Emil Larmi produced 27 saves for Finland.
“We attempted to play with speed up front to disrupt the timing of the Finns,” mentioned Canadian head coach Andre Turingi. “They’re so sturdy on the puck, they are heavy and they guard the puck nicely.
“We wanted to be seriously aggressive when they had the puck and take possession away from them as rapidly as feasible.”
Finland beat Canada four-three in overtime to win gold final Might. It was the third time in a row that the two sides had played for gold at the occasion.
Canada will subsequent play Latvia, a surprise three-1 winner more than perennial rivals Sweden.
“We played nicely defensively and blocked a lot of shots, and we have to hold that up,” Blais mentioned. “We have a wonderful goalkeeper in whom we have a lot of self-confidence and we will give our greatest game against Latvia.”
The United States of America will face Germany in the other semifinal on Saturday. The medal matches are scheduled for Sunday.
Finland defeated Canada in 2019, but Canada won the rematch two years later. The 2020 tournament has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.