Juniors peaking at the right time
MALMO, SWEDEN— Canadian head coach Brent Sutter has talked about the importance of getting better daily ever since the start of selection camp in Toronto. Little by little, his wishes at the world junior hockey championships are coming true. After a rocky start to the tournament, the Canadians pulled out an important win in their final preliminary round game against the United States to secure the top seed in Group A. On Thursday, they were even better. Canada beat Switzerland 4-1 in the quarter-final in what Sutter felt was a more structured and disciplined effort. “As this has gone on, they’ve got better and better with that,” said Sutter, whose team now faces Finland in the semifinal on Saturday. “I think tonight was a sign of a team that was very steady. “They found a way to break their opposition. We’ve got to have the same mindset against Finland now.” For a team that started slowly against Germany, lost in a shootout to the Czech Republic, and needed a third-period rally to top Slovakia, Thursday’s game looked like a breeze. Canada opened the scoring for the first time in a tournament game on a goal by defenceman Griffin Reinhart 18:08 into the first period. They never trailed and never got frustrated by a plucky Swiss team. “I thought we handled today really well,” Sutter said. “I thought we’ve been getting better each game we’ve gone along here. “We’ve dealt with a little bit of adversity. We’ve handled that. It’s made us probably a better team for it, which is what you want.” “Everyone contributed,” said defenceman Mathew Dumba. “We kind of rolled the lines over and just went at them.” Sutter was impressed with his team’s resolve. The Canadians outshot the Swiss 23-20. “We knew this wasn’t going to be an easy game,” he said. “All the pressure was on us. They had nothing to lose. They just had to go play. We knew they were going to play hard and give it their best shot. We had to make sure we were playing the way we wanted to play.” Dumba left the game midway through the second period with a knee injury, after being tripped into the boards by Vincent Praplan. He returned in the third period and said after the game he was “fine,” despite a noticeable limp. “I just needed to give it a little break to rest up and calm itself down,” he said. Dumba said playing against Finland on Saturday isn’t even a question. He’ll be in. The Canadians beat Finland 4-2 in a pre-tournament game on Dec. 20. They know the margin of error on Saturday will be razor thin. “The parity in this tournament is really strong,” Sutter said. “If you’re not right and you’re not playing close to the level you need to play at, any given night you can be beaten.” The Finns overcame a 3-1 deficit thanks to three third-period goals to beat the Czech Republic 5-3 in their quarter-final matchup. That could be a momentum builder. But the Canadians believe they’ve slowly been improving. The timing couldn’t be better with the medal round right around the corner.