2005-06 National Men's Under-18 Team

Canada 3 - Slovakia 1

IIHF World Men's Under-18 Championship
Preliminary Round
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
16:00 (local)
Angelholm/Halmstad, SWE
Angelholms Ishall/Sannarps Isstadion

HALMSTAD, SWEDEN -- Canada opened the 2006 IIHF World Under-18 Championship on Wedensday with a 3-1 win over Slovakia. Canada was led offensively by forward Justin Azevedo (London, ON - Kitchener, OHL) who had a goal and an assist and was named Canada's player of the game.

After a scoreless first period of play, Azevedo opened the scoring 1:23 into the second period to give Canada a 1-0 lead. Slovakia's Rastislav Konecny tied it 1-1 at 6:53 while Canada had two players serving penalties. Canada's Francois Bouchard (Sherbrooke, QC - Baie-Comeau, QMJHL) scored on a 5 on 3 power play midway through the second period, when he one-timed a shot from the side of the net on a pass from Azevedo, to put Canada ahead 2-1. Brandon Sutter of the WHL's Red Deer Rebels scored into an empty net with 32 seconds left in the third period, to give Canada its first win of the Championship.

Jonathan Bernier (Laval, QC - Lewiston, QMJHL) played in goal for Canada, making 34 saves. Canada was outshot 35-30 in the game.

Canada's next game is on Thursday, when it takes on Norway at 4:00pm local (10am ET / 7am PT). Canada will have a practice on Friday, as it is an off-day for the team, before playing Sweden on Saturday and Finland on Monday to wrap up preliminary play in Group B. TSN will broadcast LIVE, Canada's game on Monday, April 17th versus Finland.

Box Score	CAN	0	2	1	3
Compte	SVK	0	1	0	1

First Period/Première période

Scoring/Buts:
None/Aucun

Penalties/Pénalités:
19.02 2 min Canada 25. AZEVEDO, Justin Cross-checking
15.06 2 min Canada 24. McDONOUGH, Ryan Kneeing
13.23 2 min Slovakia 27. SLADOK, Jozef Tripping
9.41 2 min Slovakia 27. SLADOK, Jozef Roughing
01.20 2 min Canada 4. WISHART, Ty Interference

Second Period/Deuxième période

Scoring/Buts:
30.01 1 - 2 PP2 Canada 16. BOUCHARD, Francois Game Winning Goal
26.53 1 - 1 PP2 Slovakia 24. KONECNY, Rastislav (7. MIKUS, Juraj) (8. BIRO, Marek)
21.23 0 - 1 EQ Canada 25. AZEVEDO, Justin (6. SCHIRA, Craig)

Penalties/Pénalités:
37.17 2 min Canada 20. TAVARES, John Hooking
35.59 2 min Canada 18. CARPENTIER, Hugo Charging
35.27 2 min Slovakia 3. JAVOREK, Justin Holding
31.58 2 min Canada 21. PYETT, Logan Interference
28.59 2 min Slovakia 8. BIRO, Marek Hooking
28.06 2 min Slovakia 27. SLADOK, Jozef Interference
27.46 2 min Canada 6. SCHIRA, Craig Cross-checking
27.46 2 min Slovakia 18. CALADI, Erik Slashing
26.06 2 min Canada 4. WISHART, Ty Cross-checking
25.15 2 min Canada 27. NELSON, Levi Tripping
24.54 2 min Canada 16. BOUCHARD, Francois Slashing
22.44 2 min Slovakia 12. BEZAK, Adam Interference
21.45 2 min Canada 8. McGINN, James Roughing

Third Period/Troisième période

Scoring/Buts:
59.28 1 - 3 EQ Canada 12. SUTTER, Brandon

Penalties/Pénalités:
51.15 2 min Slovakia 3. JAVOREK, Justin Tripping
47.42 2 min Canada 3. CORRENTE, Matthew Cross-checking
47.42 2 min Slovakia 18. CALADI, Erik Unsportsmanlike Conduct
45.27 2 min Canada 17. BARTLEY, Victor Roughing
40.39 2 min Canada 17. BARTLEY, Victor Kneeing

Goaltenders	CAN	Jonathan Bernier
Gardiens de but	SVK	Marek Simko

Shots on Goal	Team	1 p	2 p	3 p	Ttl
Shots on Goal	CAN	-	-	-	30
Tirs au but	SVK	-	-	-	29

Referee/Arbitre	Sami Partanen
Linesmen/Juges des lignes	Peter Feola, Konstantin Olenin

Attendance/Assistance	---