The dream about the quarter-finals is kept alive for Canada. Russia, however, will not continue on in the Championship. Canada’s captain Lauri Hannelius scored three goals when they won 8-9 (3-2, 3-4, 2-3) in an entertaining match.  

The match between Russia and Canada was hard and even, but Russia took the lead. Beautifully. From his position behind Canada’s goal, Alexander Taldonov made a Zorro pass to his teammate Pavel Semenov who scored 1-0. Taldonov himself put another ball behind the Canadian goalkeeper before Canada’s captain Lauri Hannelius evened out the score by himself. The teams both scored another goal before the end of the first period and we also witnessed Mack Saunders leave the court with a possible knee injury.  

The Canadian captain scored 3-3 before he got a penalty in the second period. Russia took advantage of that right away and scored 4-3 in power play. Canada answered immediately and evened the score just 20 seconds later.

After that, the teams followed each other. Canada scored twice to 4-5, Russia took back the lead to 6-5 before Hannelius scored his third goal which brought the score to 6-6.  

Canada was the hungrier team in the third period. They scored three goals in a row (6-9) with the last one being a penalty shot made by Joel Inouye. Russia needed to win and evened out the score in box play (8-9) with only a few seconds left on the clock. It was not enough and the Russians are out of the tournament. 

Full match statistics here.

Photo: Rasmus Tynander.