Torino, Italy (CIS) - Team Canada's Men's Ice Hockey team captured Pool "B" at the 23rd Winter Universiade by tying the Russian Ice Hockey Team, 2-2, in the final Pool "B" round robin game. Both teams finished the round robin at 3-0-1 for 7-points. Canada wins the top spot by the second tie breaker "goal differential" which they led Russia by plus 14. Canada will now take on Team Finland who finished second in Pool "A" to Kazakhistan. Russia will face Kazakhistan in the other semi-final. Team Canada is made up of All Stars from the AUS conference.
Canada came out strong and open the scoring early on a Dan Rudisuela (Saint Mary's-St. Catharines, ON) goal at the two minute mark. Canada kept the pressure on and their speed was too much for the Russians as they were sent to the penalty box four times in the first six minutes of the game. The Canadians added a second power play goal five and a half minutes into the game on a Kyle McAllister (St. Thomas-Cornwall, ON) goal. The Canadians kept the pressure up for more than two periods as Russia played the trap in the second period to stay in the game.
In the third period, Russia started to get some shots on Paul Drew (UPEI-Merlin, ON) and scored their first goal of the game at the three minute mark by Eugeny Isakov. The goal broke the Canadians shutout streak at 223 minutes and 14 seconds to start the tournament. Russia kept the pressure on Canada and when the Slovak referee called the 11th Russian Power Play, they finally sloved Canada's excellent penalty killing team, by tying the game on a Vladislav Dashkevich goal at the 16 minute mark of the final period.
Canada would hold on for the tie and the Pool "B" Title. They will now play Finland on Friday, January 26th, at 8:30PM (Italy Time).
"We played hard but not for 60 minutes," said Head Coach Trevor Stienburg. "We did accomplish the goal of winning the Pool, but we had the win in our sites." Stienburg's FISU Coaching record now stands at 9-1-1 overall.
SUMMARY
Canada 2 0 0 = 2
Russia 0 0 2 = 2
GK Russia: Maxim Koryakin / CDN: Paul Drew
Power Plays: Russia 1-11 / CDN 2-6
Goals:
1st Period:
CDN: 2:26 Dan Rudisuela PP2
CDN: 5:28 Kyle McAllister PP
2nd Period:
None
3rd Period:
RUS: 3:14 Eugeny Isakov
RUS: 16:17 Vladislav Dashkevich PP
Pool "B"
Canada 3-0-1 = 7 (Goal Differential of +26)
Russia 3-0-1 = 7 (Goal Differential of +12)
Pool "A"
Kazakhistan 4-0-1 = 9
Finland 3-1-1 = 7
Friday, January 26 Semi-Finals
(2) Russia v (1) Kazakhistan 4:30PM
(2) Finland v (1) Canada 8:30PM
Visit the FISU Torino Web Site for the complete results and schedules: www.universiadetorino2007.org