Canada 4 - Finland 2

Qualifier Round
Monday May 15, 2006
8:15 pm (local)/ 1:15 pm ET
Riga, LAT
Riga Arena

RIGA, Latvia – That's more like it.

A day after Canada turned in its worst effort of the World Hockey Championship, the Canadians served up one of their best in a 4-2 win over Finland in its final game of the qualifying round on Monday.

The Canadians were paced by Jeff Carter, who scored a pair of short-handed goals on his Philadelphia Flyers teammate, goalie Antero Niittymaki. Patrice Bergeron and Brad Boyes also scored for the Canadians. Sidney Crosby extended his point-scoring streak to six games with an assist.

With the victory, Canada can finish no worse than second in the E Group and the Canadians could finish first if the Czech Republic loses to the U.S in Tuesday's play. Canada, which can finish no worse than second place heading into the playoff round, lost 6-4 to the Czechs on Sunday in a game in which a lackluster effort in the first period led to their demise.

Canada's quarter-final opponent will be set after the completion of the round robin Tuesday.

One day after going down 3-0 in the first period on the way to a loss to the Czechs, Canada came out firing against the Finns.

Bergeron opened the scoring at 5:58 on the power play when he stuffed a shot under Niittymaki, who was surprised by Bergeron's quickness with the puck.

Carter doubled the margin on a short-handed rush and he beat Niittymaki on a wrist shot. The Finns got that back on the same
penalty, with Mikko Koivu beating a screened Marc Denis in the Canadian net with a wrist shot.

Carter wasn't through with the heroics and he netted his second short-handed goal of the game at 6:33 of the second on a breakaway after he blocked a shot and pounced on the loose puck to create the scoring chance.

Denis made 38 saves in the getting the victory.

Petro Nummelin also scored for Finland. His goal at 10:46 of the second period narrowed the score to 3-2 but the Canadians went on the attack and their efforts paid off with Crosby setting up Boyes at 11:36.

The line of Crosby, Bergeron and Boyes has combined for 36 points in six games.