Canadian juniors dominate the Finns to finish the round robin unbeaten

Some words come to mind with how Canada has played through the first four games of the world junior hockey championship: Dominant. Superb. Commanding.

But those words seem to fail to explain how good Canada has been through four victories in Edmonton’s Rogers Place.

Thursday’s result against Finland — an actual hockey power — was the same as results against Germany, Slovakia and Switzerland. A Canadian win. Canada won 4-1 to sweep the group-stage games, outscoring its opponents 33-4 along the way.

“At his at this point, it’s all about performance,” Canadian coach André Tourigny said. “You can be happy about a performance or you can be proud of a performance. Both are good, but being proud of your performance is even better, and we’re on the right side of it today.”

Finnish coach Antti Pennanen summed it up differently: “They have lots of good player on the ice.”

The only reason the game didn’t get out of hand: Finland had pretty good goaltending from Kari Piiroinen. The Canadian team basically doesn’t let the other team have the puck. The ice is tilted.

The Canadians were relentless in pursuing the puck, playing for long stretches in Finland’s end.

“The biggest thing, we were in the offensive zone so much,” Cozens said. “It was tough for them to get in our zone. It started in the offensive zone, and shutting them down right away with their zone entries.”

Indeed, the puck was in the Finnish end for more than 32 minutes, and on Canadian sticks for more than 10 minutes, as measured by Sportlogiq. The puck was in the Canadian end for under 11 minutes, on Finnish sticks for under four minutes.

“We got the win, and got first place,” said defenceman Bowen Byram.

Canada still led 3-0 after outshooting the Finns 17-1 in the first period and 18-6 in the second, until Finland came to life in the third. It was Brad Lambert, a Finn with roots in Saskatchewan, who scored Finland’s goal, set up by Leafs prospect Topi Niemela.

The late Finnish push was probably a good lesson for the Canadians, reminding them that sometimes you have to play in your own end. It also gave goalie Devon Levi a reason to be dressed. He has yet to face 20 shots in a game. He was solid, the only goal coming off a deflection.

But that means little to the Canadians. The New Year’s Eve Game is a big deal to the players. It’s typically the most important of the round robin, though it’s typically against the Americans or Russians. And it’s a game the Canadians want to win.

“We want to win every game,” Tourigny said. “We came here to win every game. And every game we feel the urgency to win. We are a proud team, a proud county. That’s why we’re here. We’re here to win our games. How important is it? I don’t know. I don’t measure it. I just want to win every game.”

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“When you have that level of depth, you have to use it,” said Tourigny.

Things get a little more difficult now that the tournament has hit the quarterfinal stage, but the Czechs shouldn’t offer much more resistance than Finland on Saturday, though they did beat Russia earlier in the tournament. The stakes are higher now. The winner carries on. The loser goes home.

“The Czechs did us a favour by beating the Russians, to remind us how good they can be,” Tourigny said. “It will be shame on us to (take them lightly). We feel the urgency of the situation. We know they’re a proud country and they will fight, so there’s no way we’ll take them lightly.”