Canada’s men’s hockey team will be moving on to the final games against Finland after dominating Czechia 6-1. Finland beat the U.S. 4-3 in their semifinal games.
This is the third straight finale game between Canada and Finland after Finland won in Slovakia back in 2019. Canada beat Finland last year in Latvia. Sunday’s final game will be taking place in Finland this year however.
Canada scored three goals on their competitors in a span of three minutes 19 seconds during the second period of the game.
“The Czechs have been good on the penalty kill all tournament and we were able to capitalize on a few power plays tonight,” said Team Canada coach Claude Julien. “We are going to take some time and study Finland’s penalty kill, and hopefully come up with a solution for it like we were able to do against the Czechs.”
“We know Finland is strong on special teams and because of that we are expecting a tough game tomorrow night.”
Czechia would get their singular point during the latter part of the first period after David Krejci would get the goal, followed by Canadian player Cozens who would then tie the game going into the second period.
Defenseman Ryan Graves told reporters: “We take pride in our hockey. As Canadians, hockey’s in our blood so I know everyone back home is rooting for us to get gold.”
“It’s an honor to play for your country and that’s the whole reason we come over here.”
Canadian goalie Chris Dreidger would make 25 saves throughout the game, after Czechia would make 26 shots compared to Canada’s 35.
“Tomorrow in front of the [Fins], there is going to be some adversity and we are going to need to battle through it,” said Canadian forward Pierre-Luc Dubois. “We have a lot of confidence in ourselves and we know what we are capable of.”
America will be playing Czechia for bronze on the same day as Canada’s match.
