CANADA WEST TAKES SECOND IN GROUP A WITH WIN OVER SWEDEN

SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. – Thanks to its record-setting power play, Canada West will head into the 2009 World Junior A Challenge quarter-finals with a win under its belt.

The Canadians needed just 12 seconds to score a pair of goals with the man advantage – setting a WJAC (twice) by scoring just six seconds into a power play – and got multiple-point games from five players as it concluded preliminary round play in Group A with a 6-3 win over Sweden on Tuesday afternoon.
The victory puts Canada West (1-0-0-1) into Thursday’s late quarter-final (7 p.m. AT), where it will take on the loser on Tuesday night’s game between the United States and Belarus. The Swedes (0-0-1-1) will take on that game’s victor in the first quarter-final on Thursday (2 p.m. AT).

It was Sweden who hit the board first on Tuesday at Molson Canadian Arena at CUP as Adam Almquist, a seventh-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings in last June’s NHL draft, blasted a shot past Canadian netminder Sean Bonar, who was under fire while the Swedes enjoyed an early power play.

After the Swedes were penalized for too many players on the ice in the dying seconds of the period, Cody Kunyk ripped a shot past Oskar Östlund with just half-a-dozen ticks gone on the Swedish penalty, pulling the Canadians even heading into the intermission.

The goal broke the previous record of seven seconds, which had been done twice previously.

Both teams came out like a house on fire to open the second period, combining for three goals in a span of 48 seconds.

First it was Daniel Carr giving Canada West its first lead of the game at 1:36, followed by Kellen Jones at 2:01 for a 3-1 lead. Undaunted, the Swedes came back up the ice and pulled back to within one thanks to Joakim Nordström at 2:23.

Curtis Gedig restored the two-goal advantage very late in the period, throwing a wrist shot at the net which eluded Östlund. Gedig’s goal came just six seconds after Adam Petterson was sent off for high sticking, tying the WJAC record set earlier in the game.

Despite being outshot 15-4 in the third it was Canada West that struck for the first two goals of the period, as Kunyk and captain Mathew Bodie scored to give the Canadians their biggest lead of the game at 6-2.

Sebastien Dyk got one back for Sweden in the game’s final minute, providing the final margin of victory.