FINNISHING TOUCH
Canada uses opportunistic scoring and a bit of luck to open tourney with a win
BUFFALO —A little luck and a lot of opportunistic scoring.
That’s essentially how Canada defeated Finland 4-2 in their first game of the world junior hockey championship on Tuesday. It wasn’t necessarily a pretty or a dominant win. But at the same time, there was a lot to like from the Canadian side, which received goals from three different lines and a 29-save effort from returning goalie Carter Hart.
In the end, consider this a warm-up game — for both the players and fans.
Playing out of the same rink as the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, the KeyBank Center was barely half full on Day 1 of the tournament. Those that did come to watch clearly had crossed the border, as this was as close to a home game as you could get for Canada.
From the beginning, the boys in red-and-white gave the sparse crowd something to cheer about. The Canadians, who have no draft-eligible players, don’t have a star player like Connor McDavid or even Dylan Strome this time around. But as they try to win their second gold medal in nine years — they last won in 2015 — they certainly aren’t lacking in speed or balanced scoring.
Both were on display in an overpowering — if not onesided — win against Finland.
“We had a pretty strong game,” said defenceman Victor Mete, on loan from the Montreal Canadiens. “We took it to them in the first period, set the tone, and came out with the win. We have a lot of great skaters on this team, so if we can use our speed to our advantage, we will. It could have been a lot more than a 4-2 game, I think.”
Canada next plays Slovakia on Wednesday, before taking on the defending Americans in an outdoor game on Friday and then Denmark on Saturday to conclude the preliminary round.
It was difficult to pick just one difference-maker from Canada. Maybe that’s a good thing. Nearly every player on the team did something to affect the game, whether it was fourth-line forward Alex Forementon setting the tone with an early open-ice hit or stay-athome defenceman Cal Foote saving a sure-goal by swatting a puck out of the crease.
For a team that was put together a week or so ago, it was remarkable how quickly they have come together and already assumed roles. This already looks like a team that’s been playing together all year. There’s chemistry between linemates. And there’s an identity built around an ability to fly around the ice and fill the net.
“We know in that room what we’re capable of,” said Boris Katchouk, who scored the game’s first goal. “On every line there’s players that can really score and I think we showed that tonight. There was some depth scoring today. It wasn’t just one line scoring all the goals.”
Each of the first three goals came from a different line, as Canada jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the first period thanks to a breakaway goal from Katchouk and a couple of tap-ins from Sam Steel and Drake Batherson. Despite getting outshot 12-7, the Finnish goalie really didn’t have a chance.
“It just shows our depth,” said Taylor Raddysh, who also scored for Team Canada. “We have four lines that can score and we’re all fairly fast and the chemistry is starting to come along and when you have things like that you’re going to have success. We just have to keep going on with that.”
Team Canada didn’t overpower Finland with a ton of shots. In fact, Finland was outshooting Canada through the first half of the game. But what stood out is just how easily the offence came.
Canada had defeated Switzerland 8-1, the Czech Republic 9-0 and Denmark 5-2 in pre-tournament exhibition games. And while those meaningless games are hardly an indicator of a country’s gold-medal chances, it did showcase just how dangerous Canada’s offence is.
Katchouk, a Tampa Bay Lightning prospect who has scored 27 goals in 30 games with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, was too much for Finland’s defence to handle as the 6-foot-3 power forward charged up the ice and took the puck hard to the net on a partial breakaway early in the first period.
Less than 30 seconds later, Canada took advantage of a stunned Finnish team when Steel made it 2-0 on a power play goal.