Yesterday afternoon Canada defeated the Finnish team 6-4 in the
world junior hockey championships, setting up a possible gold medal game
today with Russia.  Jeff Freisen, whose status was questionable due to
injury, did play.  To the surprise of almost everyone, coach Don Hay
chose to start Dan Cloutier in goal.  The Edmonton Journal reported today
that this decision was based on Cloutier's fine play against Finland in a
pretournament exhibition.  As usual the Finns started Jussi Markkanen.
        Canada got off to a quick start producing a 2x1 almost
immediately.  At 0:44 Canada got on the board early when Larry Courville
scored on a pass from Jason Allison.  The second assist went to Marty
Murray.  Even before the goal Allison also came close on an attempted
backhand wraparound.
        At 3:00 Miska Kangasniemi tried a tip in front, but couldn't
connect.  At 7:35 Larry Courville had two close in shots but couldn't put
it home.  Finland's Tommi Sova drew an interference penalty at 9:32.
Prior to the whistle for this delayed penalty Denis Pederson almost
scored after some good passing.  Going into this game Canada's power play
percentage is a sparkling 45.5%.
        The Canadians drew a penalty at 12:02 when Ryan Smyth went off
for interference.  Canada killed it off with no Finn shots but the Finns
created some pressure and 3 quick shots just after the penalty concluded.
        Jere Karalahti went off for holding the stick at 15:34.  This
time Canada could hardly penetrate the zone on power play.  Canada
started out like gangbusters in this period but Finland had their
moments, especially as the period wore on.
        SHOTS: Canada 10  Finland 7
 
        Finland came out strong in the second period getting great
chances including one which got behind Cloutier but that was cleared.
Bryan McCabe scored for Canada with assists to Murray and Allison at
3:18.  The Murray, Allison, and Courville line was cooking the entire game.
        Finland's Tommi Hamalainen took a cross checking penalty at
3:56.  This was a dumb penalty with Canada already gaining back
momentum.  Todd Harvey converted the power play chance on a pass across
the slot from Jeff Friesen with the second assist to Alexandre Daigle.
There was great passing on this power play.
        Larry Courville went off for interference at 5:10.  The Finns
scored quickly at 5:32 narrowing the gap to 3-1 when Petri Kokko took a
shot from the point which went in through traffic.  Assists to Janne
Nuutika and Tommi Sova.
        Right away O'Neill broke in alone, but Markannen got just enough
to keep the puck from going over the line..  At 10:00 Cloutier showed his
good glove hand on a quick Finn shot.
        Chad Allen went off for hooking at 10:44.  The Finns first power
play unit looked good passing, but got no scoring chance.  At 13:11
Tommie Rajamaki took an interference penalty which broke up a 2x1. Eric
Daze scored on the power play on a gorgeous pass from Murray at 13:50.
Second assist to Allison.
        At 16:00 Daigle fed Freisen a great pass right in front but
Markkanen stopped it.  Timo Solonen was called for Roughing at 16:41.
The Finns scored at 19:35 on a nice flip shot by Janne Niinimaa with an
assist to Antti Aalto.  Then right away the Finns scored again at 19:47,
Jussi Tarvainen skated right in on Cloutier and beat him with an assist to
Kimmo Timonen.
        Despite the total shots being even at 25 Canada was dominating
most of the play, that is until they stopped playing with 30 seconds to go.
        SHOTS: Canada 15  Finland 18
 
        At 1:30 Sova stole the puck and was in alone on Cloutier who made
a point blank save.  Canada gave themselves some margin for error when
just after the announcement that Russia beat Sweden Marty Murray skated
in and wristed a shot by Markkanen at 2:36 with assists to McCabe and
Allison.  The Swedish loss energized the Canadians who scored again at
4:58 to make it 6-3.  Daigle scored on a nice wrist shot form Courville.
        Just after the goal Nolan Baumgartner was hurt at centre ice.
Even on the replay shown on the scoreboard it was hard to see how it
happened.  He skated off flexing his knee.
        At 7:21 Lee Sorochan took a dumb penalty for tripping.  The Finns
came close on the power play but could not score.  At 11:40 Toni Makioho
went off for boarding Baumgartner who was having a star crossed period,
again being shaken up on this play.
        Then Aalto broke in alone and missed the net.  Seconds later he
did it again and was pulled down for a penalty shot which Nutikka
converted to make the final score 6-4.  Goal time was 12:52.
        At 13:07 Aalto took another bad penalty for roughing and
compounded it with a misconduct.  Finland pulled their goalie with 2:24
left and almost scored in a scrum with 1:25 remaining.
        SHOTS: Canada 12  Finland 18
 
        This was a well contested if chippy game.  Canada looks like they
are coming around.  It will be interesting to see how the Russian game
goes today.  Nobody expected the Russians to be in position to win a gold
medal after losing their opening game to the US.  At the game yesterday I
was asked to name my price for this game which is in Red Deer.
 
Arthur Berman  [log in to unmask]
THE MAPLE LEAF FOREVER!!!
GO BU!!!