2006 European Air Canada C up
Game Summary/Sommaire du match
Thursday January 5, 2006/ jeudi le 3 janvier
Canada vs. Finland/Canada vs. Finlande
Canada 4 Finland/Finlande 1

The 2006 European Air Canada Cup kicked off today in Ravensburg, Germany with Canada’s Under 22 team meeting Finland’s Under 21 team in the opening match of the tournament. The tournament format is a single round robin, with the Cup being awarded to the first place team at the end of three days of games. A win at the end of regulation time is worth 3 points, a tie is worth 1 point. Tie games are decided by a five minute overtime, followed by a shootout, if necessary, to determine the winner. An overtime win is worth 2 points.

The first period looked a lot like the exhibition game Canada played against Germany as both teams struggled to adjust to the tighter officiating standards being applied by the IIHF. Canada, after a game under their belts a day earlier, did a good job controlling the puck throughout the period. They went 5-5 on penalty kill creating a couple scoring chances for themselves while short-handed. Finland’s netminder Nora Räty, who has played with Finland’s senior team against Canada’s National Women’s team, did a good job of keeping her team in the game stayed composed keeping Canada off the scoreboard. At the other end of the ice,Brittony Chartier stopped a breakaway to keep to Finland scoreless as well.

Canada came out of the gates in the second period flying, finally breaking the scoreless tie at the 10:38 mark of the period. Canada’s first goal was the result of a perfect passing play during their second 5 on 3 situation of the day. Tara French passed the puck diagonally cross ice to Tarin Podloski, who then skated off the wall and slide a perfect pass cross ice to Stephanie Jones standing alone off the back post, who did not hesitate to drive the puck by Räty. The line of Jones- Podlsoski and Riggs continued to give Finland all kinds of trouble in the 2nd period. On her first shift back on the ice after scoring Canada’s first goal, Jones picked up a loose puck in the NZ, managed to muscle her way through a crowd at the blue line, before beating the last Finnish defender and giving the puck to Riggs, wide open in front of the net. Much like Jones had done a few minutes earlier, Riggs drove the puck to the back of the open net. Canada’s third unanswered goal, their second power play goal of the game, looked very much like their first power play goal but this time with Gagnon passing to Craig then to Chouinard, who tucked it away and sent Canada into the dressing room with a 3-0 lead.

The third period saw Finland play their best period of the game. They kept Canada pinned in their own end of the ice and limited the Canadian shots to 7 for the period. Canada struggled to complete passes and couldn’t maintain the same kind of puck control they had in the previous two periods. The Finns continued to try and sneak players in behind Canada’s defense but were not successful in getting pucks to open people. Finland scored their only goal of the game early in the period aafter a Team Canada turnover turnoverjust inside the Finnish blue line caught 4 Canadians deep in the Finnish zone. Piia Lallukka and Sari Kärnä passed the puck back and forth down the ice until they succeeded in getting the Canadian defender turned around giving Lallukka an empty net to put the puck into. With 16:44 left in the period and a face-off in Canada’s zone, Finland pulled their goaltender in an attempt to close the lead to one. Canada did a good job of staying composed and did not allow the Finns to get the puck into places where they could get a quality shot. Even after a stoppage in play, the Finns elected to keep Räty on the bench in favour of a 6th attacker. After a series of failed attempts to put the puck into the empty net, Marin recovered a loose puck just outside the blue line and choose to pass around the Finnish player trying to block her shot. Hall completed the play by finally putting the puck into the empty net to close out the 4-1 victory for Canada.

Canada’s next game is against Switzerland on Friday at 1:30 p.m. local time