(TRENTINO, Italy) – The Canadian men's hockey team suffered its first
setback at the Winter Universiade dropping a 4-2 decision to Kazakhstan
in its third and final preliminary round game, Sunday evening.
Kazakhstan (3-0) and Canada (2-1) finish first and second in Pool C,
respectively, and both advance to the quarter-finals of the biennial
competition on Dec. 18. Their next opponents will be decided once pool
play wraps up on Monday.
After opening the 12-team tournament with convincing wins over Japan,
12-1, and Ukraine, 11-0, the Canucks were brought back to earth by a
rival they had defeated 3-1 in the bronze-medal match two years ago in
Turkey.
Special teams played a key role in today's contest as Kazakhstan
scored twice on eight power play opportunities and added a short-handed
marker, while the team of Atlantic University Sport all-stars went
0-for-4 with the man advantage.
The Red and White got off to a good start and was leading 1-0 after
the opening period thanks to Tyler Carroll's first of the tourney at the
13:31 mark. The native of Strathroy, Ont., completed a play initiated
by his University of New Brunswick teammate, team captain Chris
Culligan.
The wheels fell off the Canadian wagon in the middle frame however as
Kazakhstan responded with three unanswered goals and outshot the AUS
squad 9-2.
Leonid Metalnikov tied the affair 32 seconds into the period during a
power play. Nikita Kovzalov made it 2-1 at 9:22, and Yevgeniy Rymarev
doubled Kazakhstan's lead with 2:34 left before the break while his team
was playing man down.
Team Canada refused to go down without a fight and got back to within
one 4:57 into the third. Moncton defenceman Simon Lacroix of Orleans,
Ont., scored his first assisted by Saint Mary's Cory Tanaka and StFX's
Rob Slaney.
Despite a 13-10 shot advantage in the period, the Canucks couldn't
find the equalizer and Rymarev put the game away with 1:33 remaining,
once again with the man advantage.
Making his second start of the competition, UPEI netminder Wayne
Savage made 22 saves in the loss. His opponent Andrey Yankov also turned
aside 22 pucks to improve his record to 2-0.
"We had a lead after the first and had some good opportunities but
fell behind in the second. When you have one-goal games like that,
special teams are often the indicator, and tonight we gave up a
short-handed goal and two power play goals. It turned out to be the
separator," said Canadian head coach Gardiner MacDougall from UNB.
"We've had two outstanding games and tonight we faced a really good
opponent. We have to use the adversity as a stepping stone to get to
another level of the tournament."
GAME NOTES: Despite their special team struggles against Kazakhstan,
the Canadians are ranked second in the tournament on the power play with
seven goals in 19 opportunities (36.84%) and are fifth in penalty
killing with three goals allowed in 14 short-handed situations
(78.57%)... Kazakhstan ranks fifth on the power play (25%) and fourth on
the penalty kill (86.67%)... In 13 previous appearances at the FISU
tourney, Canada has reached the podium 12 times, including three gold
medals, three silver and six bronze. Its three triumphs came in 2007
when represented by AUS standouts, 1991 (senior national team) and 1981
(Alberta Golden Bears).
SCORING SUMMARY
FIRST PERIOD
SCORING:
1. CAN Tyler Carroll (1) (Chris Culligan), 13:31
PENALTIES:
Mike Cazzola (CAN) slashing, 1:13;
Rodion Zharkikh (KAZ) cross-checking, 7:05;
Konstantin Savenkov (KAZ) cross-checking, 11:48;
Michael Kirkpatrick (CAN) tripping, 13:08;
Cory Tanaka (CAN) high sticking, 19:05.
SECOND PERIOD
SCORING:
2. KAZ Leonid Metalnikov (1) (Alexandr Shin, Yevgeniy), 0:32 PP
3. KAZ Nikita Kovzalov (1) (Alexey Grichshenko, Pavel Zhilin), 9:22
4. KAZ Yevgeniy Rymarev (3) (Alexandr Shin), 17:26 SH
PENALTIES:
Georgiy Petrov (KAZ) hooking, 1:46;
Marc-Antoine Desnoyers (CAN) tripping, 10:31;
Matthew Maione (CAN) cross-checking, 12:29;
Alexandr Kaznacheyev (KAZ) hooking, 16:52.
THIRD PERIOD
SCORING:
5. CAN Simon Lacroix (1) (Cory Tanaka, Rob Slaney), 4:57
6. KAZ Yevgeniy Rymarev (4) (Leonid Metalnikov), 18:27 PP
PENALTIES:
Tyler Carroll (CAN) tripping, 10:09;
Rob Slaney (CAN) slashing, 18:04;
Wayne Savage (CAN), interference (served by Mike Cazzola), 19:38.
GOALS (by period)
KAZ: 0-3-1: 4
CAN: 1-0-1: 2
SHOTS ON GOAL (by period)
KAZ: 7-9-10: 26
CAN: 9-2-13: 24
POWER PLAY:
KAZ: 2-8
CAN: 0-4
GOALTENDERS
KAZ – Andrey Yankov (W, 2-0, 24 shots, 22 saves, 2 GA, 60:00)
CAN – Wayne Savage (L, 1-1, 26 shots, 22 saves, 4 GA, 60:00)
