Friday, January 06, 2006
Canadian Peewee, future Canadian Hockey Champ
Canadian Hockey Fan"Hockey on Skating Rinks ~ Canada"
When you're the one invented Hockey, you're bound to play the game better at it than most.
The drop of the hockey puck on our skating rink faces off a sport played by peewees and pros alike, by French Canadians, by Aboriginal Canadians, by newly-landed Torontonians who chose Canada for their new home.
Hockey keeps the expansive terrain of Canada a tight community.
TeamCanada - World Junior Hockey Champions 2006
Justin Pogge, Canada's goalie
Justin Pogge, Canada's goalie, World Junior Hockey ChampionshipsCanada Juniors Defend Gold-Medal
...with a 5-0 win over Russia
Canada -World Junior Hockey Champions
05/01/2006 11:39:00 PM
VANCOUVER (CP)
Brent Sutter did it again.
He navigated Canada to a second straight world junior hockey championship by demanding his team play a relentless defence. Canada shut down a Russian team considered more talented 5-0 in Thursday's final to defend the gold medal won last year in Grand Forks, N.D. The back-to-back titles are the first for Canada since 1996 and 1997 when the country completed a run of five straight. It was Canada's 12th title since the tournament's inception in 1974, and it was accomplished through Sutter's system of team defence - and great goaltending from Justin Pogge.
This was Canada's best defensive performance at a world junior championship with only six goals against in six games and only one at even strength.
"We had a great group of young men and they just stuck with it and stuck with it," Sutter said. "They've hung in there together and as they went along they got better and better.
"Going into the game, all you heard about was how skilled the Russians were and how good of a team they had and rightly so, but I think one thing everyone underestimated was the skill level we had on our team."
Sutter, the coach, general manager and owner of the WHL's Red Deer Rebels, is 12-0 in his two years at the helm of the national junior team. He's become the winningest Canadian coach in the history of this tournament.
"Brent's an intense guy," Canadian captain Kyle Chipchura said. "He's got the respect of everybody on this team. He kept our focus right and kept us the distractions out.
"He never let us off the hook, he never let us give up anything for free and if we did slack off a bit, he was right there telling us about it. He was huge for us."
Pogge collected his third shutout of the tournament. The goalie from the Calgary Hitmen stopped 35 shots and helped hold off Russia when it was outshooting Canada 15-3 in the early going.
Pogge tipped his new world-champion baseball cap to the crowd during the post-game celebration to acknowledge the regular chanting of this name throughout the game and the tournament.
"We had a slow start and he bailed us out again," Chipchura said.
Michael Blunden of the Erie Otters scored two power-play goals for his first two goals of the tournament. Blake Comeau of the Kelowna Rockets, Steve Downie of the Peterborough Petes and Chipchura of the Prince Albert Raiders had a goal each in front of a full house at GM Place.
Medicine Hat Tigers defenceman Cam Barker had two assists. Barker was the only player on the team to get a second gold medal. He couldn't play in last year's final because mononucleosis.
Sutter's philosophy of an aggressive defence, hard work and attention to detail proved successful with both the star-studded team that won last year and this squad, which was considered an underdog because it was younger, more inexperienced and less talented.
Russia did not get good goaltending from Anton Khudobin as he showed poor technique on Canada's first two goals.
"Those first two goals were decisive," Russian coach Sergey Mikhalev said. "We were not able to outplay the great defence of Team Canada and their goaltender.
"It's the first time in the tournament our team was not able to score."
Canada worked harder and was more willing to pay the physical price around the Russian net than the Russians were in defending it.
Canada's special teams were better with two goals on seven power-play chances while holding Russia scoreless on six opportunities.
Russia outshot Canada 15-8 in the opening 20 minutes, but the Canadians emerged with a 2-0 lead on goals by Comeau and Downie. They were also buoyed by the defensive effort of Marc Staal, who shut down Russian star Evgeni Malkin, and Pogge, who made some tricky saves during three Russian power plays.
Television replays in the opening two minutes of the second period showed the puck getting across the goal-line behind Pogge on a shot by Russian Nikolai Lemtyugov. The Russians had a long discussion with American referee Brian Thul, but the score remained 2-0.
Mikhalev said had that goal been recognized, the complexion of the game would have changed.
"Team Canada would have played differently," he said.
Sutter disagreed.
"We would have not changed our game plan if the Russians had scored one goal," he said.
The 2006 world junior hockey championship held in Vancouver, Kelowna and Kamloops, B.C. shattered the previous attendance record of 242,173 set in Halifax in 2003.
Official attendance was announced at 325,138 although ticket sales were said to be over 400,000.
The spectators at both Pacific Coliseum and GM Place in Vancouver were loud as expected. In addition to cheering for Canada, they adopted whichever country played the U.S., particularly when they cheered for Russia in the semifinal between the two countries.
But the chanting of few spectators became boorish with "U.S. sucks" in the semifinal and "over-rated" in the bronze-medal game.
It contrasted with the Halifax tournament in which the U.S. goaltender got a standing ovation for his performance following a semifinal loss to Canada.
It wasn't until Thursday's gold-medal final that the home-team support reached the spine-tingling levels that Halifax and Winnipeg in 1999 had throughout their tournaments.
There were empty seats in the corporate section in the lower bowl for all of Canada's games, including the gold-medal game, perhaps due to the 4 p.m. local start times.
The 2007 world junior hockey championship will be held in Leksand and Mora, Sweden.
The good news for the Canadian junior team is there are 12 players eligible to return and the bad news is that some of them will be playing in the NHL and unavailable to represent their country again at the international under-20 level.
Canada -WorldJuniorHockeyChampions
Canada -World Junior Hockey Champions
05/01/2006 11:39:00 PM
VANCOUVER (CP)
Brent Sutter did it again.
He navigated Canada to a second straight world junior hockey championship by demanding his team play a relentless defence. Canada shut down a Russian team considered more talented 5-0 in Thursday's final to defend the gold medal won last year in Grand Forks, N.D. The back-to-back titles are the first for Canada since 1996 and 1997 when the country completed a run of five straight. It was Canada's 12th title since the tournament's inception in 1974, and it was accomplished through Sutter's system of team defence - and great goaltending from Justin Pogge.
This was Canada's best defensive performance at a world junior championship with only six goals against in six games and only one at even strength.
"We had a great group of young men and they just stuck with it and stuck with it," Sutter said. "They've hung in there together and as they went along they got better and better.
"Going into the game, all you heard about was how skilled the Russians were and how good of a team they had and rightly so, but I think one thing everyone underestimated was the skill level we had on our team."
Sutter, the coach, general manager and owner of the WHL's Red Deer Rebels, is 12-0 in his two years at the helm of the national junior team. He's become the winningest Canadian coach in the history of this tournament.
"Brent's an intense guy," Canadian captain Kyle Chipchura said. "He's got the respect of everybody on this team. He kept our focus right and kept us the distractions out.
"He never let us off the hook, he never let us give up anything for free and if we did slack off a bit, he was right there telling us about it. He was huge for us."
Pogge collected his third shutout of the tournament. The goalie from the Calgary Hitmen stopped 35 shots and helped hold off Russia when it was outshooting Canada 15-3 in the early going.
Pogge tipped his new world-champion baseball cap to the crowd during the post-game celebration to acknowledge the regular chanting of this name throughout the game and the tournament.
"We had a slow start and he bailed us out again," Chipchura said.
Michael Blunden of the Erie Otters scored two power-play goals for his first two goals of the tournament. Blake Comeau of the Kelowna Rockets, Steve Downie of the Peterborough Petes and Chipchura of the Prince Albert Raiders had a goal each in front of a full house at GM Place.
Medicine Hat Tigers defenceman Cam Barker had two assists. Barker was the only player on the team to get a second gold medal. He couldn't play in last year's final because mononucleosis.
Sutter's philosophy of an aggressive defence, hard work and attention to detail proved successful with both the star-studded team that won last year and this squad, which was considered an underdog because it was younger, more inexperienced and less talented.
Russia did not get good goaltending from Anton Khudobin as he showed poor technique on Canada's first two goals.
"Those first two goals were decisive," Russian coach Sergey Mikhalev said. "We were not able to outplay the great defence of Team Canada and their goaltender.
"It's the first time in the tournament our team was not able to score."
Canada worked harder and was more willing to pay the physical price around the Russian net than the Russians were in defending it.
Canada's special teams were better with two goals on seven power-play chances while holding Russia scoreless on six opportunities.
Russia outshot Canada 15-8 in the opening 20 minutes, but the Canadians emerged with a 2-0 lead on goals by Comeau and Downie. They were also buoyed by the defensive effort of Marc Staal, who shut down Russian star Evgeni Malkin, and Pogge, who made some tricky saves during three Russian power plays.
Television replays in the opening two minutes of the second period showed the puck getting across the goal-line behind Pogge on a shot by Russian Nikolai Lemtyugov. The Russians had a long discussion with American referee Brian Thul, but the score remained 2-0.
Mikhalev said had that goal been recognized, the complexion of the game would have changed.
"Team Canada would have played differently," he said.
Sutter disagreed.
"We would have not changed our game plan if the Russians had scored one goal," he said.
The 2006 world junior hockey championship held in Vancouver, Kelowna and Kamloops, B.C. shattered the previous attendance record of 242,173 set in Halifax in 2003.
Official attendance was announced at 325,138 although ticket sales were said to be over 400,000.
The spectators at both Pacific Coliseum and GM Place in Vancouver were loud as expected. In addition to cheering for Canada, they adopted whichever country played the U.S., particularly when they cheered for Russia in the semifinal between the two countries.
But the chanting of few spectators became boorish with "U.S. sucks" in the semifinal and "over-rated" in the bronze-medal game.
It contrasted with the Halifax tournament in which the U.S. goaltender got a standing ovation for his performance following a semifinal loss to Canada.
It wasn't until Thursday's gold-medal final that the home-team support reached the spine-tingling levels that Halifax and Winnipeg in 1999 had throughout their tournaments.
There were empty seats in the corporate section in the lower bowl for all of Canada's games, including the gold-medal game, perhaps due to the 4 p.m. local start times.
The 2007 world junior hockey championship will be held in Leksand and Mora, Sweden.
The good news for the Canadian junior team is there are 12 players eligible to return and the bad news is that some of them will be playing in the NHL and unavailable to represent their country again at the international under-20 level.
Canada -WorldJuniorHockeyChampions
TSN covers The World Junior Hockey Champions
Canada defeats Russia 5 - 0
REUTERS
By Roger Lajoie
Thu Jan 5, 10:21 PM ET
Canada -WorldJuniorHockey
VANCOUVER (Reuters)
Michael Blunden scored a pair of goals and Justin Pogge made 35 saves as Canada defeated Russia 5-0 in the championship game of the World Junior Hockey Championships Thursday.
Canada scored twice in the first period and twice in the second to set up the convincing win before a raucous sell-out crowd at GM Place, home of the NHL's Vancouver Canucks.
It was the Canadians' second consecutive gold medal and the 12th championship for Canada since 1977 at the men's under-20 event. Canada went a perfect 6-0 at the tournament.
"We came out and played our game and, oh my God, look what happens," Pogge, a Toronto Maple Leafs prospect, said. "We're in Canada and it's Canada game. The gold stays in Canada."
Finland took the bronze medal earlier in the day with a 4-2 win over the United States.
Blunden, a 2nd round draft pick of the Chicago Blackhawks, scored a pair of power play goals 2:42 apart in the second period to put the game away for Canada. Blake Comeau, a New York Islanders prospect, and Steve Downie, a 1st round selection of the Philadelphia Flyers, scored less than two minutes apart late in the first period for Canada.
Montreal Canadiens' 1st round draft pick Kyle Chipchura added Canada's final goal in the third period.
Pogge was especially sharp early in the first period when the Russians out-shot the Canadians 15-3 in the opening 15 minutes. Anton Khudobin played goal for Russia.
Jesse Joensuu scored a pair of goals for the Finns in their bronze medal win over the Americans, while Lauri Tukonen and Jari Sailio scored the others. Jack Johnson and Bobby Ryan replied for the USA.
NHL stars such as Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Peter Forsberg, Jaromir Jagr and Markus Naslund have starred at this event in past years.
Canada -WorldJuniorHockey
By Roger Lajoie
Thu Jan 5, 10:21 PM ET
Canada -WorldJuniorHockey
VANCOUVER (Reuters)
Michael Blunden scored a pair of goals and Justin Pogge made 35 saves as Canada defeated Russia 5-0 in the championship game of the World Junior Hockey Championships Thursday.
Canada scored twice in the first period and twice in the second to set up the convincing win before a raucous sell-out crowd at GM Place, home of the NHL's Vancouver Canucks.
It was the Canadians' second consecutive gold medal and the 12th championship for Canada since 1977 at the men's under-20 event. Canada went a perfect 6-0 at the tournament.
"We came out and played our game and, oh my God, look what happens," Pogge, a Toronto Maple Leafs prospect, said. "We're in Canada and it's Canada game. The gold stays in Canada."
Finland took the bronze medal earlier in the day with a 4-2 win over the United States.
Blunden, a 2nd round draft pick of the Chicago Blackhawks, scored a pair of power play goals 2:42 apart in the second period to put the game away for Canada. Blake Comeau, a New York Islanders prospect, and Steve Downie, a 1st round selection of the Philadelphia Flyers, scored less than two minutes apart late in the first period for Canada.
Montreal Canadiens' 1st round draft pick Kyle Chipchura added Canada's final goal in the third period.
Pogge was especially sharp early in the first period when the Russians out-shot the Canadians 15-3 in the opening 15 minutes. Anton Khudobin played goal for Russia.
Jesse Joensuu scored a pair of goals for the Finns in their bronze medal win over the Americans, while Lauri Tukonen and Jari Sailio scored the others. Jack Johnson and Bobby Ryan replied for the USA.
NHL stars such as Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Peter Forsberg, Jaromir Jagr and Markus Naslund have starred at this event in past years.
Canada -WorldJuniorHockey
Canada-Russia ~ World Junior Hockey
Canada-Russia showdown
for gold in world junior hockey tournament
Canada -WorldJuniorHockey1
Canada -WorldJuniorHockey1
04/01/2006 1:48:00 AM
VANCOUVER (CP)
VANCOUVER (CP)
Canada is making a habit of playing in the final of the world junior hockey championship and the 2006 team wants the country to start making a habit out of winning them again.
Canada beat Finland 4-0 in the semifinals Tuesday to advance to the gold-medal game against Russia, a 5-1 winner over the United States, on Thursday (TV, 7 p.m. ET). Canada will be going for gold in the world under-20 men's championship for the fifth straight year - four of them against Russia, including a 6-1 win last winter in Grand Forks, N.D.
The last back-to-back world junior titles for Canada were in 1996 and 1997, when the country capped a run of five straight.
"The whole country is watching and everyone is counting on us," said forward Blake Comeau. "There's also that pressure in the dressing room so, obviously, it's going to be a huge game for us.
"I think everyone is going to be disappointed if we don't end up getting what we want."
The Americans and the Finns play for bronze Thursday (TV, 3 p.m. ET).
Comeau scored a pivotal goal late in the second period to give Canada breathing space against Finland. Kris Russell of the Medicine Hat Tigers, Andrew Cogliano of the University of Michigan and Kris Letang of the Val-d'Or Foreurs scored for a Canadian team that dominated on defence.
Justin Pogge of the Calgary Hitmen stopped 19 shots for his second shutout of the tournament.
This Canadian team plays an aggressively defensive game for head coach Brent Sutter as last year's team also did under him.
Canada has given up six goals in its five games so far and only one of them was an even-strength goal.
"We've got a good chance of winning if we play the way that we have to and not give teams a whole lot," Comeau said.
Canada was the more rested team Tuesday because it had a bye to the semifinal, while Finland had less than 20 hours to recover from a 1-0 overtime win over Sweden on Monday when goaltender Tuuka Rask, a Toronto Maple Leafs draft pick, made 53 saves.
"We're disappointed, but not so much as some would think," Rask said. "Canada was the favourite heading into this game."
Canada fired 43 shots at Rask and pressured the Finns above the Canadian blue-line. The Finns were worn down by Canada's hard checks, including a couple of thunderbolts by defenceman Luc Bourdon, a Canucks draft pick, to the delight of the Vancouver crowd.
Michael Blunden steamrolled Erkka Leppanen behind the Finns' net early in the first period and Leppanen got up slowly after he was decked by Ryan O'Marra in the third period. O'Marra also hammered Tommi Leinonen midway through the third.
Rask held the Canadians off as long as he could, but the defence in front of him began to collapse. Russell scored late in the first and Comeau late in the second to give Canada momentum heading into the final period.
"You always want to come into the dressing room on a positive note and I thought we did a good job," Russell said. "We didn't get what we wanted right away but, if you just keep working hard, we did a good job of that and we were able to get those goals."
Finland took penalties out of fatigue, but Canada wasn't able to convert seven man-up chances in the first 40 minutes before Letang's power-play goal in the third.
Canadian penalty killers looked after the other side of the ledger and Finland didn't score on seven opportunities.
Cogliano, a speedster who has struggled scoring in this tournament, ended his drought by streaking down the wing and beating Rask over his shoulder with a high shot to cap the scoring at 13:32 of the third.
"It was good for me to get that goal and get some confidence," Cogliano said. "I can carry that confidence into the gold-medal game."
Pogge assisted on that goal and had GM Place chanting his name. Attendance was announced at a capacity 18,630, but there were several empty seats for a game that started at 4 p.m. local time.
Dustin Boyd provided some traffic for Letang's shot from the blue-line, that beat Rask glove-side to make it 3-0 for Canada at 9:40 of the third.
Comeau said Canada's goal was to get more traffic in front of Rask than the Swedes did and capitalize on second and third chances, which he did on his goal.
The New York Islanders draft pick caged his own rebound on a Marc Staal shot from the blue-line and waited for Rask to commit low before putting the puck around his outstretched pad to make it 2-0 at 18:58 of the second period.
Canada kept the Finns to the outside when they attacked. Pogge was in the right spot when Ryan Parent turned the puck over in front of him midway through the second period and Petteri Wirtanen got a quick shot away.
The Canadians wanted to take advantage of the Finland's short recovery and get on them early, but it wasn't until 18:16 that Russell broke the tension with the crucial first goal.
Benoit Pouliot found Boyd on the opposite boards and Boyd drove in on Rask's right, while Blunden cruised up the left. Russell, trailing the play, moved all alone into the slot and made good on Canada's first unchallenged shot of the period.
Canada went undefeated at 4-0-0 during the preliminary round and earned the bye to the semifinal by finishing first in Group A. Canada had opened the preliminary round with a 5-1 win over Finland on Dec. 26. Finland finished third in in Group A with a 2-2 record.
CP Player of the Game: Justin Pogge, who made 19 saves for the shutout. He made a huge save in the second period when Canada was up 1-0, had an assist, and made a lot of long, heads-up passes to get the puck out of Canada's zone.
Canada -WorldJuniorHockey 2
