RENTINO, 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 Final Four matchup. 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 will be
exciting.
“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).
SCORING
SUMMARY
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)
