Canada 2-0 After Wins In As Many Days

By: Sean Kelly – OIH Correspondent

Canada’s Under-18 team looked to move to 2-0 on Saturday with their second round robin game against Finland, who was also looking to be 2-0 after an opening day win against Norway.

It seems the more things change, the more they stay the same as Eric Locke (Barrie, OHL) opened the scoring once again on the power play near the three minute mark of the first period.  Joel Armia of Finland tied the game on the power play, but goals by Olli Maata and Ryan Murphy (Kitchener, OHL) had the game knotted at two going into the third period.

Finland started the third period with a power play and capitalized on the man advantage when Joel Arima scored his second goal of the game.  Mark Scheifele (Barrie, OHL) and Nick Cousins (Sault Ste. Marie, OHL) scored 40 seconds apart midway through the third period, followed by Colin Smith (Kamloops, WHL).  Olli Maata scored once more on the power play, but it proved to be not enough as Canada held on to take the game 5-4.

Malcolm Subban stopped 34 shots in a game that saw Canada face 32 minutes in penalties helping to preserve the win.  Canada’s next game will be Monday when they look to remain undefeated when they face-off with Norway.