Canada to go for gold after beating U.S.

TSN.ca Staff

1/4/2008 12:26:44 PM

For the second straight year, Canada has defeated the United States in the semifinals of the world junior hockey championship in the Czech Republic.

Goals by Shawn Matthias, Karl Alzner, Colton Gillies and Brad Marchand propelled Canada to a 4-1 victory and a date with Sweden in Saturday's gold medal game.

"We had our best game by far," Alzner told TSN. "Right from start to finish, we wanted it so bad and we came to play."

"It was a great effort by 22 guys," coach Craig Hartsburg said.

Matthias swept his third goal of the tournament under Jeremy Smith at 2:46 of the second period to put Canada in front. Matthew Halischuk did the heavy lifting in the corner on the play, and Matthais was then able to fight through Jonathan Blum on his way to putting Canada in the lead.





Alzner scored on the powerplay at 10:00 of the second period, blasting home a feed from Kyle Turris to put Canada ahead by two. Brad Marchand also got an assist on the play.

Gillies and Marchand scored 20 seconds apart in the third period to put the game away. Both goals came off turnovers by the American defence.

Goaltender Steve Mason, who was a somewhat controversial choice to start for Canada ahead of Jonathan Bernier, stopped 33 of 34 shots and was named the team's player of the game. The U.S. did not get anything past Mason until top scorer James van Riemsdyk scored with 6:34 to play, when the game was all but decided.

"Steve's a great goaltender and a great kid," Hartsburg said of his deicision to go with Mason. "So is Jonathan Bernier... It was a tough decision and I'm happy for Steve."

Marchand said the team has confidence in both goalies.

"Either way you go, Bernier and Mason are both great goalies and they'll both have long careers in the NHL," Marchand said. "Tonight Mason played a great game."

TSN hockey analyst Pierre McGuire predicted that the United States would attack hard in the early going in an effort to rattle Team Canada. He was right, but Canada weathered the storm, successfully killing a penalty against John Tavares in the process.

Canada started to turn the tables midway through the opening period, but could not generate many scoring chances as the pace of the game increased. At the other end, Mason did a good job coming out to stop Rhett Rakhshani's hard wrister from the face-off circle, keeping the game scoreless.

Canada had a great chance on a three-man break 13 minutes into the game, but Tavares lost the handle trying to deke Smith and the puck rolled wide of the net.

With 90 seconds to go in the first period, van Riemsdyk pushed his way out front but was unable to get the puck through Mason, who held his ground against the post.

Mason had to sharp again just seconds into the second period when Ryan Flynn deflected a point shot on goal. Mason, though, made the save and did not allow a rebound.

Shortly after that, Turris had a chance at a wide open net, but he fanned on the puck. Replays showed that the net had come off its moorings, so it might not have counted anyway. Regardless, Canada came up empty and the game remained scoreless.

After Canada took the lead, the Americans had another great chance on a powerplay, but Colin Wilson missed the puck when he had Mason down and out. Stefan Legein helped Mason on the play, interfering with Wilson's stick just enough to make him miss.

Then Canada got its first powerplay chance, and Alzner converted to put the Americans in a 2-0 hole exactly halfway through the game.

It could have been worse, but the U.S. did strong work to kill a 5-on-3 situation late in the second frame.

Claude Giroux had a chance to put Canada up by three early in the third period, but he couldn't handle a bouncing pass in front of Smith.

The floodgates opened at 7:04 of the third period when Gillies finished a fine passing play to put Canada ahead 3-0. Legein and Brandon Sutter earned assists on the goal, which the Americans argued was an off-side play.

Twenty seconds later, Marchand beat Smith to make it 4-0 Canada.

Earlier today, Sweden beat Russia 2-1 in overtime in the first semifinal. Sweden, which has not won a medal at this tournament since 1996, beat Canada 4-3 in the preliminary round.

Russia will play the United States in the bronze medal game.