Thursday, December 23, 2010

WJC TODAY - 12-23-10

GAME DAY
Team Canada will play their final pre-tournament game prior to the start of the World Junior Hockey Championships tonight in Kitchener, Ont. against Finland.

The game can be seen live on TSN2 at 8:30pm AST.

The Canadians are 2-0 so far in exhibition play, outscoring their opponents 12-1.

The world juniors begin on Boxing Day with Canada taking on Russia.

LAST GAME
Canada had a tougher test on Tuesday night when they faced Sweden at the Air Canada Centre than they had Monday versus Switzerland.

The Canadians would go on to defeat the Swedes 4-1, and although the team wasn’t expected to dominate as they did in Monday’s 8-0 blowout win over the Swiss, they got off to a slow start and had their troubles.

"I don't think anybody thought we were going to win every game 8-0," head coach Dave Cameron said to the Canadian Press. "There's a lot of good hockey teams here and Sweden is one of them, it's a real challenge to beat them and they pushed us and we found a way.

"It was a real good test. That's how you get better."

Despite being outshot 15-5 in the opening frame, Canada held a 1-0 lead thanks to a beautiful display of stick work by Brayden Schenn.

Zack Kassian would score in the second to give Canada a 2-0 lead. In the third, Sweden got on the board when a Max Friberg shot from the wing appeared to deflect off Saint John Sea Dogs defenseman Simon Despres’ stick and over Canada goaltender Olivier Roy to make it a one-goal game.

But Canada would get two later in the stanza thanks to Ryan Johansen and Cody Eakin to get a 4-1 victory.

Roy, the Acadie-Bathurst Titan No. 1 goaltender, made 29 saves in the win.

SLOVAKIA VS RUSSIA
Tomas Jurco and Team Slovakia will face Stanislav Galiev and Team Russia today in world junior pre-tournament action. According to the Jamestown Post-Journal, the game will take place at 5:00 pm AST at the Savings Bank Ice Arena.

A Sea Dogs release from earlier this week said this game will be used as a tryout for Galiev in an effort to stick with the Russians for the remainder of the tournament.

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