Moscow (AFP) – Reigning world champions Canada boosted their hopes of retaining their title as they thrashed Sweden 6-0 at the ice hockey world championship quarter-finals in Saint Petersburg on Thursday.
Canada joined Finland, the United States and Russia in the semi-finals which will be played in Moscow on Saturday after Finland saw off Denmark 5-1, while the USA beat Czech Republic 2-1 in a penalty shootout and Russia downed Germany 4-1.
Winnipeg Jets centre Mark Scheifele and Ottawa Senators winger Mark Stone both had a goal and two assists, while Cam Talbot produced 24 saves to chalk up his third shutout at the event.
Scheifele put Canada 1-0 up with 1:21 remaining before the first interval, while Minnesota Wild blueliner Matt Dumba, Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins and Max Domi also scored in the second to give Canada a commanding 4-0 lead.
Mark Stone and Derick Brassard completed the rout of Sweden in the third.
“It was much closer than the score indicates,” Canada’s manager Bill Peters said. “If you look at the situation in the second and the third, we had a couple of bounces and at times, they had us in trouble.
“But our goaltender had a really good bounce-back game (after a defeat at the hands of Finland) and so did our team.”
– Matthews puts Americans through –
In the match for a place in the final Canada will meet neighbours the USA, who battled back from a goal down to notch a shootout victory in the first Moscow quarter-final.
Tomas Zohorna put Czech Republic into the lead with a penalty shot 15:23 into the match, but Auston Matthews cancelled it out 1:27 into the second period.
After a goalless third period and overtime the winner was decided in a penalty shootout.
The Czechs squandered all three of their attempts, while the 18-year-old Matthews was the hero for the USA as he scored the American team’s winner.
“I just wanted to open his legs, go five-hole,” Matthews said about his shootout goal. “I was able to sneak it in there, so it worked out.”
In the opening quarter-final in Saint Petersburg Finland cruised comfortably past Denmark, recording their eighth win in as many matches as they bid for their first world title since 2011.
Finland outshot the Danes 11-4 in the opening period but scored only once at 14:29 through Minnesota Wild centre Mikael Granlund.
Jarno Koskiranta and Patrik Laine added a goal apiece in the second period, while Montreal Canadiens centre Lars Eller scored a powerplay goal for Denmark.
The Danes substituted their goalie for a sixth field player with 2:18 remaining and Jussi Jokinen took full advantage by scoring an empty-netter.
Granlund rounded off the scoring with his second of the match with 1:53 to go.
“We knew there were no free tickets to Moscow,” Finland head coach Kari Jalonen said. “We had to pay the price. Denmark had a great tournament here. It was tough to break their defence. But I think we won deservedly today.”
– Russia advance –
In the second Moscow quarter-final Russia also came from behind to beat Germany 4-1 to record their 13th win in 14 meetings at the worlds since 1993.
Vadim Shipachyov collected two goals and an asisst to consolidate his lead in the event’s scoring chart with 16 points (five goals and 11 assists) so far.
Patrick Reimer put Germany in front 4:45 into the match but in the second Shipachyov scored twice, while Yevgeni Dadonov added another goal to fire Russia 3-1 ahead.
Alexander Ovechkin rounded off the scoring with his first goal at the tournament 2:45 into the third.
“We started well but conceded a careless goal on the counter-attack,” Russia’s skipper Pavel Datsyuk said.
“Luckily, after the break we calmed down. Shipachyov and his line-mates have all been very productive today.”
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