Canada and Russia move to WJC Semi-Final Round

BUFFALO, NY- North American and European Semi-Final games are now set after Sunday’s Quarter-finals games at the International Ice Hockey Federation’s U20 World Championships. Russia staged a dramatic late game comeback and grabbed an overtime win to claim a semi-final berth 4-3 over Finland. Canada managed a tough Swiss team 4-1 to claim the other slot. Russia plays Sweden this afternoon while the US and Canada meet tonight. The winners of these matches move to the Championship Game on Wednesday.
 
Russia-4, Finland-3 (O/T)
Trailing by two goals with less than four minutes left in regulation at HSBC Arena the Russian squad rode the heroics of Yevgeni Kuznetsov and staged a furious rally to tie and then beat Finland. The come from behind win left the Finish team shocked as they looked to be in complete control with a 3-1 lead and less than four minutes left in regulation.    
 
The Russians crept within one goal at 16:19 in the last period as Kuznetsov scored in a jam up with heavy traffic in front of Finnish goalie Joni Ortio. Then with the clock reading 18:22 Kuznetsov who plays in the Kontinental Hockey League for Tractor Chelyabinsk set up the tying goal by Maxim Kitsyn’s.  
 
Kuznetsov was not finished. Next he used a blazing wrist shot to beat Ortio from the left hand circle about 12 feet out to cap the stunning comeback win. This goal came at 6:44 of overtime.   Kitsyn set the strike up by his work along the boards. He outmuscled his Finnish opponent and slid the puck to Kuznetsov who buried the winner in the high right hand corner of the net and the Russian bench erupted.   Kitsyn (1-g-2a) and Kuznetsov (2g-1a) each had three points in the game.
 
Dmitri Shikin stopped 34 shots on goal to pick up the win for Russia. He made two great saves in overtime to keep the Russian’s alive. His counterpart Ortio swept aside 41 of 45 shots while taking the loss. Russia’s initial goal came from Yuri Urychev while Finland’s goals came from Teemu Pulkkinen, Julius Junttila and Joonas Donskoi.    
 
Canada-4, Switzerland-1     
 In the Semi-Final game Sunday the Swiss threatened Team Canada and took a 1-0 lead before the Team Canada’ superior depth wore them down. In an all too familiar pattern for Canada in the tournament they fell behind 1-0 to the Swiss as a nervous goaltender Mark Visentin who replaced the previous starter Olivier Roy allowed a soft goal at 1:09 of the opening period.
 
Inti Prestoni skated the puck out from behind the Canadian goal and used a soft backhanded wrap around that found room between the goalie’s pads and the pipe.   Sven Bartschi got credit for the assist.   The goal came on the very first Swiss shot.    
 
At the other end Benjamin Conz, the 19 year Swiss goaltender was off to a great start. He withstood an early 5-on-3 power play making two great saves to keep Canada off the scoreboard. Conz has been impressive in this tournament and has attracted the interest of scouts as he is undrafted.    
 
Canada finally tied it up on their third power play opportunity. Brayden Schenn (7g-9a) who now has 16 points in tournament action and leads all scorers drew the defense to him and setup Ryan Johansen who beat Swiss goaltender Benjamin Conz. Then goal came in heavy traffic at 15:06 of the period.
 
The second period featured defense as both teams managed to shut down their opponents although Canada had the territorial edge. Finally at the 17:28 mark Casey Cizikas picked up a puck at the Swiss blue line and beat a sliding defenseman and Conz with a wrist shot in the top shelf of the net. Canada was up 2-1 as the second period concluded.    
 
Cizikas’ game winner was supplemented with an insurance goal by a former Omaha Lancer of the United States Hockey League. Lois LeBlanc who left Omaha for Harvard and then left Harvard for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League beat Conz low from the top of the circle   4:17 into the third period. He was set up by Cody Eakin and great fore checking which produced the opportunity.
 
Canada’s final marker and a 4-1 win came with Conz pulled for an extra attacker.   Zack Kassian back after serving a two game suspension imposed for a match penalty in a previous game against the Czech Republic found the empty net.    
 
Conz made 46 saves on 49 shots while Visentin stopped 21 of 22 shots on goal by the Swiss.   After the game Coach Dave Cameron of Canada announced that Visentin will start tonight against the United States. Team Canada has never been beaten by the Swiss in WJC competition Their 19 game win streak goes back to 1980.
 
In Relegation Round action, Slovakia blasted Norway 5-0 and Germany lost to the Czech Republic 3-2.   The Czechs and Slovaks will compete in the tournament next year as Norway and Germany are relegated.
 
Today’s games have Russia and Sweden skating at 3:30 PM while Canada and the USA faceoff around 7PM.   The HSBC match-up tonight between Canada and the US comes in an earlier round as most observers predicted the teams would meet in Finals. The opening round loss to Sweden however required Canada to play in the Quarter-Finals and the two teams will now meet in the WJC Semi-Finals tonight. The winner will advance to the finals on Wednesday night to face either Russia or Sweden.
  Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com <:u1:p>

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