2011 IIHF Ice Hockey Junior World Championship

Russia 3 – Canada 6

CANADA WINS WORLD JUNIOR OPENER

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Ryan Johansen and Brayden Schenn scored power play goals early in the third period as Canada opened the world junior hockey championship with a scrambly 6-3 victory over Russia on Sunday.

Canada went 3-for-5 with the man advantage, with Marcus Foligno getting one in the first period. Curtis Hamilton got a goal with 27 seconds left to play and defencemen Ryan Ellis and Erik Gudbranson also scored for Canada.

Maxim Kitsyn, Nikita Dvurechenski and Danil Sobchenko scored for Russia. Russian star Vladimir Tarasenko made some dazzling plays, but the St. Louis Blues prospect was held to one assist.

"We're getting better each game," said Ellis. "When we need it most, guys step up."

Johansen was at the net to bang in a rebound 3:36 into the final period to break a 3-3 tie and Schenn scored on a feed from Zack Kassian at 6:16.

The packed HSBC Arena was a blanket of red of white as Canadian fans flocked across the border from southern Ontario to give their team a home rink atmosphere. They even took a cue from Montreal fans by singing "Ole, Ole" as the game wound down.

"The tournament is huge back home and being in a border city a lot of our fans can come," said Canadian head coach Dave Cameron. "A big part of coaching is generating emotion and it certainly helps when you have that in the building and they're all on your side."

Drawn in a tough group, their opener was a far cry from a year ago in Saskatoon, when they blitzed Latvia 16-0 en route to a 4-0 preliminary-round record in which they outscored their opponents 32-6.

Canada plays the Czech Republic on Tuesday, Norway on Wednesday and ends the preliminary round Friday against Sweden.

Neither team looked polished in a game in which players struggled to control a bouncing puck, leading to errant passes and icings.

Canada laid on the body early and it cost them. Two players went for the same Russian and left space open for Yuri Urychev to move in from the left point and see his shot deflected by Kitsyn past Olivier Roy 3:57 into the game.

A big penalty kill led by Casey Cizikas midway through the period looked to wake Canada up and, at 17:55, Foligno was at the side of the net to lift Louis Leblanc's rebound in on a power play to tie it.

Ellis scored when his point shot went just wide, came off the end boards, bounced off goalie Igor Bobkov's skate and in 10:35 into the second, but Dvurechenski got it back at 11:51 when his shot on a rush slipped between Roy's pads.

"The boards are hard," said Ellis, "I was hoping to bank it so it would go to one of our guys, but I got a lucky bounce and it went in."

Gudbranson scored on a point blast at 15:15, but with Kassian off for slashing, Russia tied it again on a power play at 16:52 when Sobchenko was in front to bang in Urychev's point shot.

In the 10-team tournament's opening game, Switzerland took the early lead and held on for a 4-3 victory over Germany.

The last time Canada failed to win its opening game of the world junior was a 0-0 tie with Slovakia in 1999 in Brandon, Man., and the last time they lost was a 3-2 decision to Finland in Helsinki in 1998.

Reports say Canadians purchased 63 per cent of the 310,000 tickets sold so far for the tournament.


Game Information/Renseignements sur le match
Game #/No. de match 01 Round/Ronde Preliminary
Arena/Aréna HSBC Arena Location/Lieu Buffalo, NY
Date Sun. Dec. 26, 2010 Time/Heure 04:00 PM ET

 

Box Score/Compte 1 2 3 Final
RUS 1 2 0 3
CAN 1 2 3 6

 

Goals & Penalties/Buts et pénalités
First Period/Première période

Goals/Buts :
03:57 RUS 13 Maxim Kitsyn (12 Yuri Urychev, 9 Dmitri Orlov)
17:55 CAN 17 Marcus Foligno (20 Louis Leblanc, 24 Calvin de Haan) PP

Penalties/Pénaltés :
08:01 RUS 14 Daniil Sobchenko (Holding)
11:36 CAN 16 Curtis Hamilton (Slashing)
16:34 RUS 8 Semyon Valuiski (Interference)

Second Period/Deuxieme Période

Goals/Buts :
10:35 CAN 6 Ryan Ellis
11:51 RUS 17 Nikita Dvurechensky (15 Artyom Voronin, 9 Dmitri Orlov)
15:15 CAN 5 Erik Gudbranson (12 Quinton Howden, 7 Sean Couturier)
16:52 RUS 14 Daniil Sobchenko (10 Vladimir Tarasenko, 12 Yuri Urychev) PP

Penalties/Pénaltés :
03:01 RUS 28 Denis Golubev (Slashing)
16:31 CAN 9 Zack Kassian (Slashing)

Third Period/Troisième Période

Goals/Buts :
03:46 CAN 19 Ryan Johansen (8 Jaden Schwartz) PP
06:14 CAN 10 Brayden Schenn PP
19:34 CAN 16 Curtis Hamilton (10 Brayden Schenn)

Penalties/Pénaltés :
03:13 RUS 21 Sergei Kalinin (Tripping)
04:51 RUS 7 Vladislav Kartayev (Slashing)
09:35 CAN 21 Cody Eakin (Slashing)

 

Goaltenders/Gardien(ne)s de but
RUS 30 Igor Bobkov On 1/00:00 Off 3/20:00
CAN 31 Olivier Roy On 1/00:00 Off 3/20:00

 

Shots on Goal/Tirs au but 1 2 3 Total
RUS 11 9 7 27
CAN 16 12 14 42

 

Players of the Game/Joueur(se) du match
RUS 10 Vladimir Tarasenko
CAN 6 Ryan Ellis

 

Officials/Officiels
Referee/Arbitre Jari Levonen, Patrik Sjoberg
Lines People/Juges de lignes Andrii Kicha, Felix Winnekens
Videos
Photos
2011 WJC: CAN 3 - RUS 5 Gold
Canada vs. Russia at the 2011 IIHF WJC in Buffalo, N.Y. (Gold)
2011 WJC: USA 4 - SWE 2 Bronze
USA vs. Sweden at the 2011 IIHF WJC in Buffalo, N.Y. (Bronze)
2011 WJC: CAN 4 - USA 1 sf
Canada vs. USA at the 2011 IIHF WJC in Buffalo, N.Y. (Semi-Final)
2011 WJC: CAN 4 - SUI 1
Canada vs. Switzerland at the 2011 IIHF WJC in Buffalo, N.Y. (Quarter-Finals)
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