EDMONTON, AB – Canada hammered Finland 8-1 in the opening game of the 2011-12 World Junior Championship series sponsored by the International Ice Hockey Federation. The U-20 men’s tournament opened preliminary round action today at Rexall Place in Group B action.
To use an old saying the Canadian Junior team scored early and often to the delight of 15,296 mostly Canadian fans. Forward Mark Stone scored a hat trick including the game’s first score just 2:14 into the game. His wrist shot came from about 15 feet out in the slot.
The Canadians scored again less than two minutes later as Brendan Gallagher settled down a bouncing puck and beat Finland’s losing goal tender Christopher Gibson for the 2-0 lead.
The Finnish squad’s sole goal came off the stick of Alexander Ruuttu in the second period as he used a quick wrist shot to beat winning goal tender Mark Visentin at 1:21 of the second stanza. Stone responded immediately however for Canada with his second goal of the game as the Canadians used an extra attacker during a delayed penalty against Finland to regain the momentum and a 3-1 lead.
Canada took a 5-1 lead into the second intermission, Their fourth goal came on a power play goal by Jonathan Huberdeau who finished the game with five points with this goal plus four assists, The fifth marker came from a strike by Dougie Hamilton as Canada controlled the rest of the second period.
Brett Connolly, Stone and Ryan Strome added third period goals for Canada to complete the rout. Strome also had a big night adding three assists to his single goal. Canada’s goal tender Visentin finished the game stopping 24 of the 25 shots he faced while Gibson in net for Finland saw 42 shots in his losing effort.
In other action today in Group A in Calgary, Alberta, Sweden outscored Latvia 9-4 at the Scotiabank Saddledome. Max Friberg scored four goals to lead the Swedish offense. Other preliminary round action scheduled for later today includes matchups between Denmark and the United States in Group B while Switzerland plays Russia in the other Group A game.
The 10 participating teams are divided into two groups. Group A participants include Latvia, Russia, Switzerland, Slovakia and Sweden while the B group consists of Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland and the United States.
After a round-robin series, the top three teams in each group advance to the playoff round. Meanwhile the fourth and fifth place teams move to the relegation round. Teams receive three points for a regulation time win, two points for an overtime or shootout win and one point for an overtime or shootout loss in the preliminary round.
The top seeded teams in each group after the preliminary round get a bye in the Quarterfinal Round thus moving directly into the Semi-Finals. The other playoff qualifiers play in the Quarterfinals for the right to move into the Semi-Finals.
Action on Tuesday will feature games between the Czech Republic and Denmark in Group B at Edmonton while Slovakia faces off against Latvia in Group A action in Calgary.
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