(Tampere) Canada earned their spot in the Ice Hockey World Championship semi-finals with a 4-1 win over Finland on Thursday night.
Jack Quinn, Samuel Blais, Michael Carcone and Tyler Toffoli scored for Canada.
Quinn scored the game’s first goal in the first period, Blais doubled Canada’s lead in the middle period and Carcone rattled the ropes in the third period.
Teemu Hartikainen, late in the third period, was the only Finn to beat Samuel Montembeault of the Montreal Canadiens, who faced 28 shots.
“Montembeault made several key saves,” said Canada’s head coach André Tourigny. Finland got breakaways and excellent quality chances, but our keeper was solid.
“He was our best player [jeudi] and when your keeper plays like that, you have a good chance of winning. »
Montembeault gave credit to his players, mentioning the team’s improvement since the start of the tournament.
“We knew it would be close, so that third goal from Carcone was huge. It took some stress off us, said the 26-year-old goalkeeper. We played well in the third period.
Our group is excellent. Our goal coming here was to win gold and we knew we would have to work hard to beat Finland, in front of their fans. We are one step closer to the goal.
Samuel Montembeault
Just 50 seconds after Hartikainen’s goal, Toffoli restored Canada to a three-goal cushion.
This duel was a resumption of the confrontations of the last three finals of the tournament.
Last May, Finland beat Canada 4-3 in overtime. The Finns also beat Canada in 2019 while the Canadian team won gold in 2021. The tournament scheduled for 2020 was canceled due to COVID-19.
Canada will face Latvia in the semi-finals on Saturday, who surprised with a 3-1 victory over Sweden.
Latvian Miks Indrasis broke the tie early in the third period, guiding his team to victory.
Rihards Bukarts took part in all three goals for Latvia, including Dans Locmelis and Janis Jaks.
The Swedish reply came from Timothy Liljegren.
The Americans also advanced to the semi-finals, beating the Czechs 3-0.
PHOTO PAVEL GOLOVKIN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Americans will face the Germans in the next round.
Matt Coronato, Nick Perbix and Cutter Gauthier scored, while Casey DeSmith made 15 saves.
The United States will have as their next rivals the Germans, who defeated the Swiss 3-1.
Maximilian Kastner, John Peterka and Nico Sturm got the goals for Germany. Only Jonas Siegenthaler fought back.