Canada secured a semifinal berth on the world hockey championship and in addition avenged a memorable loss to host Finland on Thursday.
Jack Quinn, Samuel Blais, Michael Carcone and Tyler Toffoli scored as Canada posted a 4-1 victory on the Nokia Enviornment. Teemu Hartikainen scored late within the third interval for Finland however Toffoli answered lower than a minute later to ice the victory.
“We knew it was going to be a decent recreation,” mentioned Canada goalie Samuel Montembeault, who made 27 saves. “However that massive third aim for us put the load off our shoulders.”
Carcone made it 3-0 at 2:54 of the third interval after Quinn and Blais staked Canada to an early lead.
Hartikainen lastly gave the house crowd one thing to cheer about when he tallied with 3:07 left to play, however Toffoli scored an empty-netter with 2:18 remaining.
“This can be a nice group,” Montembeault mentioned. “Our aim coming into this match was to win a gold medal, and we knew we have been going to need to work exhausting tonight to beat Finland in entrance of their followers.
“We’re one step nearer to our aim, and now we’re trying ahead to the semifinals.”
Emil Larmi made 27 saves for Finland.
“We tried to play with pace on the forecheck to disrupt the Finns’ timing,” mentioned Canadian head coach Andre Tourigny. “They’re so robust on pucks, they’re heavy and shield the puck effectively.
“We needed to be actually aggressive after they had the puck and take possession away from them as shortly as doable.”
Finland defeated Canada 4-3 in time beyond regulation to win gold final Could. It was the third straight time that the 2 sides performed for gold at this occasion.
Canada will subsequent play Latvia, a shock 3-1 winner over perennial contender Sweden.
“We’ve got been taking part in effectively defensively and blocking a number of photographs, and we have to preserve that up,” Blais mentioned. “We’ve got an excellent goalie that we’ve a ton of confidence in and we’re going to deliver our greatest recreation in opposition to Latvia.”
The USA will face Germany in Saturday’s different semifinal. Medal video games are scheduled for Sunday.
Finland beat Canada in 2019 however Canada received the rematch two years later. The 2020 match was cancelled as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.