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Canada grinds out win over Finland to start World Juniors

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
|
Dec 26 2023, 4:04 pm
Canada grinds out win over Finland to start World Juniors

It wasn’t the most dominant performance we’ve ever seen from them, but Canada managed to get the job done on the first day of the 2024 World Juniors.

Taking on Finland in their first round-robin match in Group A action at Gothenburg, Sweden’s Scandinavium, Canada came through with a 5-2 victory over their longtime rivals that was much closer than the final score indicated.

Though it’s almost an entirely new cast of players — Owen Beck is the only returning player — Canada is looking to defend their gold medal won this past January at the 2023 edition of the tournament. Dating back to 2018, Canada has won four of the last six gold medals.

The first period looked like it was set to be a scoreless one for much of it before Nate Danielson started the scoring for Canada by way of a Maveric Lamoureux shot with 3:36 to go in the opening frame.

The opening goal also saw the introduction of Canada’s new goal song, “Ordinary Day” by Great Big Sea, replacing last year’s choice of “Heave Away” by The Fables.

Earlier in the first period, with the game still tied 0-0, Canada’s Mathis Rousseau made a cross-crease glove save on a 2-on-0 rush from Finland that amazed both announcer Gord Miller and the local crowd.

Canada took a 2-0 lead late in the second period via an Owen Allard shot with a little over six minutes to go in the frame.

Unfortunately for the Canadians, Finland would strike back rather quickly with a deflection from Aleksanteri Kaskimäki cutting the lead back down to one.

Canada’s Macklin Celebrini, the projected 2024 first-overall pick in the NHL Draft, made the score 3-1 in the third period on a shot that had to be confirmed after video replay.

Referee Daniel Eriksson earned plenty of rave reviews for his dynamic goal call on the play.

Matthew Poitras looked to ice the game with an empty net goal with 2:26 left in the third period to make it 4-1 for Canada, although Finland’s Jere Lassila managed to cut the score to 4-2 with a little over a minute remaining.

Lamoreux then added a second empty netter for Canada with just five seconds left to fully put the game out of reach.

Canada is back in action at the World Juniors tomorrow, when they’ll face Latvia for their second round-robin game of the tournament. Puck drop is set for 10:30 am PT/1:30 pm ET, with the game broadcast across the TSN network.

Canada then will close out its round-robin with games against Sweden and Germany on December 29 and 31, with both of those games also taking place in the 10:30 am PT/1:30 pm ET time slot.

Adam LaskarisAdam Laskaris
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