Canada shutout Slovakia 6-0 in quarterfinal action Wednesday in Italy at the Winter Universiade to advance to the semi-finals Friday against Russia. X-Men forward Michael Kirkpatrick contributed two assists in the Canadian win. His StFX teammates Rob Slaney and Josh Day are also competing with the red and white.
Winter Universiade: Men's hockey
Canada blanks Slovakia in quarters, to face Russia in semis
Dec. 18, 2013
TRENTINO, Italy (CIS) – Tyler Carroll scored two goals while Chris Culligan and Éric Faille tallied three points apiece as the Canadian men's hockey team qualified for the semifinals at the Winter Universiade thanks to a 6-0 quarter-final win over Slovakia, Wednesday night.
The result sets up yet another meeting at the biennial tournament between Canada and archrival Russia, Friday at 10:30 a.m. EST (4:30 p.m. Trentino) in the early semifinal. The second semi will see the United States battle Kazakhstan at 2:30 p.m. EST. Both games are streamed live at www.fisu.tv.
In today's other quarter-finals, Russia (4-0) beat the Czech Republic 5-1, the USA (3-1) shut out Italy 5-0 and Kazakhstan (4-0) dominated Latvia 6-1.
The Canadians and Russians – the two-time defending champions - have met at each of the last four FISU tourneys. Russia prevailed 4-2 in the 2011 semis, 4-2 in the 2009 gold-medal match and 6-0 in pool play in 2005, while the Canucks triumphed 3-1 in the 2007 final to capture their third Universiade title.
In 13 previous appearances at the competition, Canada has reached the podium 12 times, including three gold medals (2007, 1991, 1981), three silver and six bronze.
"Any time you get Canada and Russia, it's going to be great for hockey fans," said Team Canada head coach Gardiner MacDougall from the reigning CIS champion University of New Brunswick. "You have two very good teams and it's going to be exciting for the fans.
"The whole point of this tournament is to get better every game and it's not always going to be a straight line. Maybe the performance in the last game allowed us to go up two steps today instead of one. We had more urgency, were more business-like. We played the way we have to play, we have to play Canadian hockey but we have to be disciplined and take less penalties. Special teams hurt us the last game, special teams won us the game tonight."
After dropping a 4-2 decision to Kazakhstan on Monday in their third and last preliminary round contest, the Atlantic University Sport all-stars rebounded with a solid all-around game against Slovakia.
The Red & White outshot its rivals 47-17 overall, including 16-5 in the first period, 16-5 in the second and 15-7 in the third, and was leading 3-0 after 20 minutes and 4-0 heading into the second intermission.
Liam Heelis, an Acadia University forward from Georgetown, Ont., opened the scoring on the power play 7:09 into the duel.
Carroll, who skates for UNB and hails from Strathroy, Ont., and Chris Desousa of UPEI then gave Canada a comfortable 3-0 cushion with two goals in a span of 22 seconds, at 15:00 and 15:22.
Lucas Bloodoff of Saint Mary's made it 4-0 late in the second, with Culligan and Carroll rounding out the scoring midway through the third.
It was the first of the tournament for UNB's Culligan, the team captain from Howie Center, N.S., who finished with a goal and two assists. Faille, a Moncton forward from Lachine, Que., racked up three helpers.
While the Canadians were held to one goal in seven man advantages, the penalty killing unit was perfect on nine occasions, including a trio of 5-on-3 situations.
Making his second start of the competition, Saint Mary's netminder Anthony Peters turned aside 17 shots to earn the shutout. His opponent Igor Cibula was solid in a losing effort with 41 saves.
GAME NOTES: UNB's Nick MacNeil (6-3-9) picked up an assist against Slovakia and is currently tied with Kazakhstan's Yevgeniy Rymarev (5-4-9) for the tournament scoring lead with nine points... A trio of Canadians shares third place with eight points, including Faille (4-4-8), Acadia's Mike Cazzola (2-6-8) and StFX's Michael Kirkpatrick (2-6-8)... Canada's three triumphs in Universiade men's hockey came courtesy of AUS standouts in 2007 (Turin, Italy), the senior national team in 1991 (Sapporo, Japan) and the University of Alberta Golden Bears in 1981 (Jaca, Spain).
Team Canada website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/universiade/winter/2013/index
Trentino 2013 website: http://www.universiadetrentino.org/en
TEAM CANADA SCHEDULE & RESULTS (all times local / 6 hours ahead of EST)
Dec. 10 (20:00): Canada 12, Japan 1
Dec. 13 (20:00): Canada 11, Ukraine 0
Dec. 15 (20:00): Kazakhstan 4, Canada 2
Dec. 18 (20:00): Canada 6, Slovakia 0 (quarter-final)
Dec. 20 (16:30): Canada vs. Russia (semifinal)
Dec. 21 (10:30): Bronze
Dec. 21 (14:30): Final
SCORING SUMMARY (official boxscore: BOXSCORE)
Canada 6, Slovakia 0
FIRST PERIOD
SCORING:
1. CAN Liam Heelis (2) (Nick MacNeil), 7:09 PP
2. CAN Tyler Carroll (2) (Chris Culligan, Éric Faille), 15:00
3. CAN Chris Desousa (1) (Cory Tanaka, Michael Kirkpatrick), 15:22
PENALTIES:
Martin Kalinac (SVK) hooking, 1:33;
Jakub Loydl (SVK) hooking, 7:02;
Miroslav Habsuda (SVK) charging, 11:09;
Martin Baran (SVK) tripping, 15:37;
Chris Desousa (CAN) hooking, 17:49;
Simon Lacroix (CAN) slashing, 18:14.
SECOND PERIOD
SCORING:
4. CAN Lucas Bloodoff (2) (Cory Tanaka, Michael Kirkpatrick), 15:45
PENALTIES:
Tyler Carroll (CAN) tripping, 4:16;
Cory Tanaka (CAN) tripping, 4:55;
Éric Faille (CAN) delay of game, 17:09;
Matthew Maione (CAN) delay of game, 17:15.
THIRD PERIOD
SCORING:
5. CAN Chris Culligan (1) (Alex Wall, Éric Faille), 9:15
6. CAN Tyler Carroll (3) (Éric Faille, Chris Culligan), 12:20
PENALTIES:
Miroslav Habsuda (SVK) slashing, 2:06;
Miroslav Habsuda (SVK) clipping, 7:21;
Simon Lacroix (CAN) slashing, 8:55;
Peter Cizek (SVK) hooking, 13:04;
Éric Faille (CAN) diving, 13:04;
Jakub Loydl (SVK) hooking, 16:55;
Lucas Bloodoff (CAN) slashing, 19:29.
GOALS (by period)
CAN: 3-1-2: 6
SVK: 0-0-0: 0
SHOTS ON GOAL (by period)
CAN: 16-16-15: 47
SVK: 5-5-7: 17
POWER PLAY:
CAN: 1-7
SVK: 0-9
GOALTENDERS
CAN – Anthony Peters (W, 2-0, 17 shots, 17 saves, 0 GA, 60:00)
SVK – Igor Cibula (L, 2-1, 47 shots, 41 saves, 6 GA, 60:00)
REFEREE: Ville Johannes Stigell (FIN)
LINESMEN: Simone Lega (ITA), Lauri Nikulainen (FIN)
ATTENDANCE: -
START: 20:00
END: 22:12
LENGTH: 2:12
POOL STANDINGS (FINAL)
Pool A
GP W OTW OTL L GF GA PTS
1. Italy 3 2 0 0 1 11 7 6
2. USA 3 1 1 0 1 6 7 5
3. Latvia 3 1 0 1 1 9 9 4
4. Sweden 3 1 0 0 2 6 9 3
Pool B
1. Russia 3 3 0 0 0 20 2 9
2. Slovakia 3 1 1 0 1 15 7 5
3. Czech Rep. 3 1 0 1 1 15 10 4
4. Great Britain 3 0 0 0 3 0 31 0
Pool C
1. Kazakhstan 3 3 0 0 0 11 5 9
2. Canada 3 2 0 0 1 25 5 6
4. Ukraine 3 0 1 0 2 6 18 2
3. Japan 3 0 0 1 2 5 19 1
Scoring system:
3 points for a win in regulation
2 points for a win in overtime or shootout
1 point for a loss in overtime or shootout
Legend: W (win), OTW (OT win), OTL (OT loss), L (loss)