Slovakia shocked Canada!

The game had a bit surprising start when Canada looked like a bit sleepy and was very passive. No signs of the normal aggressive forechecking and hard tackles, but rather careful and slow playing. They even gave the puck control to Slovakia. On top of that Ryan Getzlaf took a penalty for hooking after three minutes. This power play Canada killed off pretty easy but soon after the power play was over Slovakia got lucky opening goal. Branko Radivojevic shot from the right side and puck would have gone wide but it hit Tomas Kopecky's leg in front of the goal and went in. Some three minutes later the Slovaks scored again. Libor Hudacek broke through from left side and threw a back hand pass into the middle where Satan shot it right away past Cam Ward. After second Slovakian goal Canada took the game in control and rolled their attacks towards Slovakian end. The Slovaks however played calmly and defence oriented and hit back when they had chance. They crossed neutral zone quickly and had half a dozen further scoring chances via counter attacks. Canada didn't have too much real scoring chances. Still after 16 minutes they got their first goal when the puck was bouncing in front of Slovakian goal and unlucky defender Ivan Baranka kicked it into his own goal. Goal was awarded to Evander Kane.

In the second period Canada took the game tighter and tighter in their hands like expected. During the first five minutes Slovakia hardly got controlled out of their own zone. At 6.30 Jordan Eberle had a breakaway after a bad line change from Slovakia. Jan Laco made a huge save but Eberle got his own rebound, threw it back to the goal where Jeff Skinner buried it. After the equalizer Canada's pressure got even bigger. Then Slovakia took two bad penalties on the neutral zone for slashing and high sticking only 30 seconds apart from each other and Canada had a five on three power play. Despite great scoring chances Slovakia survived with luck and Laco who made couple of saves even with his head. Then 12 seconds before Slovakia got full strength Skinner took a penalty and now Slovakia had their chance. Also this power play remained without a goal although there were couple of good shots. Only two minutes were left of the period when Kris Russell's shot glided to the far post where lonely Alex Burrows could easily push the puck into the net.

Laco meets the press after the game

The third period was at the beginning lame and tensed playing from both sides. Slovakia though opened up their game and tried to play more active offensively but Canada kept them away from good scoring chances. There was not much pressure from the Slovakian side and actually Canada was even more active offensively than Slovakia. Maybe even too active and that cost them a goal at 13.25. Tomas Tatar came into the Canadian zone and left the puck to Milan Bartovic. His first shot was denied by Ward but Bartovic got his own rebound and equalized the game. Only minute after that Juraj Mikus took the puck away from big and slow Dion Phaneuf behind Canada's goal, passed to Miroslav Satan whose shot hit the crossbar. At 15.28 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins took a boarding penalty and Slovakia had their big chance to execute the game. They didn't succeed but right after RNH's penalty was over team captain Ryan Getzlaf was ejected from the game due a major penalty for kneeing Juraj Mikus.

"I tried to hit him with my shoulder but a small guy like he was tried to avoid the hit and then happened what happened" explained Getzlaf. "Of course I feel terrible right now and like I had let down the whole team".

Five seconds after the face off Andrej Sekera shot from the blueline and Michal Handzus directed the puck into goal. There was still more than two minutes left and Canada tried all they could but were still playing short handed. Time run out and Slovaks could start their celebration.

Biggest hero of the Slovakian team was certainly goalie Jan Laco who made several big saves. But the whole Slovakian team played with great disciplin and solid defensively. Canada had the game mostly in their hands but couldn't finish the game when they had a chance and lost it at the end due two bad penalties. 

"We should have scored when we had our five on three powerplay but that goal never came" said Canadian coach Brent Sutter. "We had a great bunch of guys. Our team was very young and hopefully this set back teaches us something".

This was a sad end to a sad Canadian team. Canada had what they deserved. Obviously most of the players had come to Helsinki to have some fun and not to play serious icehockey. In all their games there were several players with very bad attitude and lousy discipline to the game. This kind of things normally have sad endings. Canadians spent a lot of time in Helsinki nightclubs having some social life with Finnish beauty queens. Normal press news from Canadian team was "Team practice canceled!". Hopefully they had fun outside of the rink because at the end they certainly didn't have fun inside of the rink.

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