Canada Fends off Finns for 4-2 Win in World Junior Opener

Canada has kicked off the 2018 World Juniors on the right foot, beating Finland 4-2 on Tuesday night.

In a somewhat controversial play, Canada found themselves ahead after just 5:34 of play. Boris Katchouk would fight off two Finnish defenders, earning himself a partial breakaway. Katchouk would make a quick backhand move to beat Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, but he couldn’t put it in. However, Luukkonen did knock the puck over the goal line, and after a lengthy review by the refs, the puck was deemed to have crossed over the line before the net was taken off its moorings.

Finland took a penalty on the ensuing play, something that could be attributed to frustration. Canada made them pay, scoring just over 30 seconds after the icebreaker, with Sam Steel, one of Canada’s cuts a year ago, finding the pass at the side of the net before making it 2-0 for the 2017 silver medalists.

The Finns were far from out in the game, but they would need a "garbage" goal to put themselves back into contention. That's exactly what happened with eight minutes to go in the period when Florida Panthers prospect Aleksi Heponiemi picked up the rebound before sending it past Carter Hart’s left pad and in to make it 2-1.

Less than a minute later, Canada took back their two-goal lead. Victor Mete would do most of the hard work, skating the puck up the ice before colliding with a Finnish defender. Jonah Gadjovich picked up the puck to the left of the Finnish net before dishing it off to Drake Batherson. Batherson would get his first goal for Canada at the tournament with a one-timer blocker side, beating a sprawled Luukkonen for the 3-1 goal.

The Finns had most of the puck possession during the first 40 minutes, despite entering the second as the trailing squad. They were able to cut into Canada’s two-goal lead at 7:31 when Eeli Tolvanen got the puck out to Henri Jokiharju at the point. Jokiharju let a bomb unload from the blue line, beating Hart to make it 3-2.

But at 12:47, Canada answered back. Taylor Raddysh would grab his first of the tournament when he spun around near the blue line and sent a hard slapper towards the Finnish net, sending the puck into the right top corner to regain Canada's two-goal advantage. It was enough to stiffle the Finns, who couldn't do anything about the deficit before falling 4-2 to Canada.

“I think it was huge to get a couple of goals early," said Hart, who had 29 saves on Tuesday. "Whenever you score that first goal it’s always big for us and big for momentum. To grab it early like we did is huge and we built off that the rest of the game.” 

Canada won’t have much time to prepare for their next contest, a 7:00 PM start against Slovakia at the KeyBank Center. Finland will get a couple of nights to rest before facing off against Denmark at 12:00 PM at KeyBank on Thursday, a rematch against a team that beat them a year ago in Montreal in one of Finland’s worst World Juniors ever.

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Photos from Steven Ellis/Euro Hocke

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