EDMONTON — They have been referred to, this pesky country of hockey hard workers, as a stone in every nation’s shoe that dares go into hockey battle against tiny — but mighty — Finland. Smaller in population than either Quebec or Ontario, the Finns have won three of the past seven world junior titles.
Well, sometimes the book is better than the movie.
If this was truly Canada’s first big test at the 2021 tournament, then they passed it like a kid that’s homeschooling — with the internet at their fingertips.
Dominant? The 4-1 final score does not begin to tell the tale of how simply possessing the puck for more than one pass in a row was a Herculean task for the Finns in the opening 40 minutes.
The shots on goal in Period 1? How does 17-1 sound, in favour of the red team?
“We were real fired up to get out there,” said Dylan Cozens, who scored the first and last goals of the evening. “I think that was our best period in the tournament so far.”
The shots were 35-7 after 40 minutes — 40-19 overall — and Canada cruises into the quarterfinals with a perfect 4-0 record, yet to be truly tested by a team that one might see as their equal.
“Team Canada, “ marvelled Finnish coach Antti Pennanen, “they were so good at the start of the game.”
Canada outscored its opponents 33-4 in the group stage. They allowed just 67 shots over four games, or 17 per game.
Unless Finland was playing rope-a-dope, it appears there are only three teams that can test Canada here, and they reside on the other side of the draw: Russia, the United States and Sweden. Canada will likely see only one or two of those teams, as it is the Czech Republic that awaits in Saturday’s sudden-death quarterfinal.
If Canada plays as well against the Czechs as they did Thursday versus Finland, they’ll win by five or six.
Buzz, Buzz, Buzz
Canada’s forecheck came like the tides — line, after line, after line. Like they were being attacked by a hive of bees, poor Finland must have felt like the only solution was to grab the puck and jump into a lake somewhere.
It is exactly the game head coach Andre Tourigny wants from his charges, and you could sense the confidence in his voice that the lessons he has been teaching have seeded, and are now growing roots.
“I said to our players, ‘You can be happy about a performance, or you can be proud of your performance. Both are good, but being proud of your performance is even better,’” Tourigny said after the game.
His players are catching what he’s pitching, and when the result produces a game this dominant against a good team like Finland, it builds that bond between player and coach.
“We came out and played our best game so far,” said Cozens, who has six goals and 11 points to lead Team Canada in both categories. “They had a tough time getting out of their zone… and it really showed our identity. Speed — we created a lot of turnovers and went the other way really quick.
“We’ve been a little bit (on the) perimeter so far. We really got inside tonight.”
Bowen Byram, the smooth-skating defenceman who looks like a lock to play 1,000 NHL games, agreed.
“Today was our best 60-minute effort. In the first two periods we were all over them,” he said. “It showed our identity. We’re happy, and on to the quarters.”
Yes, something truly did click for Canada on Thursday, perhaps due to the threat of defeat. Finland, it seems, made Canada dig a little deeper than Germany, Switzerland or Slovakia could, and what the Canadians found was golden.
“When you have that kind of depth, you need to exploit it,” Tourigny explained. “You play at a pace where you push the game to a level, and you can not do it for 45 or 50 seconds. You need to keep your shifts short — that’s 30, 40 seconds — then it’s next man up. Having four lines playing with a lot of pace, that’s what the boys are doing right now. Every time they go on the ice they play with a lot of energy, a lot of effort.
“They’re going balls out. That’s the way we’ll have success.”
A Finnish Finish
Somehow, someway, the Finns found themselves with their goalie pulled and pressure in the Canadian zone in the dying moments of the game. Just one shot away from a one-goal game with two minutes to play.
It was so Finnish: Dominated for 45 minutes, the score was still only 3-1. One good shot and it would have been 3-2, and then, who knows?
Alas, Cozens stole a puck and found the empty net, and there would be no Helsinki Heroes on this night.
“The start of the game, we weren’t ready at all. Team Canada was so good,” said head coach Pennanen. “They won all the battles, the loose pucks. We tried to improve those things, and I think we did. But we had some problems at the start of the game.
Team Canada was so good today. So many good players, well-coached… Such a good team.”
The Finns barely touched the puck in the first period. It was a shock. This wasn’t supposed to be so one-sided.
“They like to shoot the puck a lot — I had to be focussed all the time,” said starting goalie Kari Piroinen. “We knew what they’re going to do. But today we couldn’t find a way.”
Finland has won three of the last seven World Juniors, not bad for a country whose population is 5.5 million people. But they’ll have to find a completely new level to see Canada again — the game the Finns played Thursday won’t get them out of the quarterfinals.
“We didn’t play so good as last game (versus Slovakia),” admitted defenceman Mikko Kokkonen. “We didn’t get pucks out early, and we had to defend longer. We didn’t have the energy (to go on offence).”
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
