2010-11 National Men's Under-18 Team

CANADA ADVANCES TO SEMIS

CP - The Canadian Press

CRIMMITSCHAU, Germany -Morgan Rielly came through when Canada's under-18 hockey team needed him most.

The Moose Jaw Warriors defenceman scored on the power play early in the third before setting up NickCousins' winner with the man advantage late in the game to lead Canada to a 4-3 quarter-final victory overGermany on Thursday.

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“He shows a ton of poise back there,'' Canadian team coach Mike Williamson said of Rielly. “ He has agreat shot, he finds lanes and guys off the net and he can shoot it.

“A situation like this speaks volumes about how good this kid is going to be. It was a crazy atmosphere,it was loud, there was a ton of pressure and really no time to think and he had all the poise in the worldand got it done.''

Canada finished the game with three power-play goals, but the team's penalty kill came up big late in thesecond when Germany had a two-man power play with the game tied 2-2.

After failing to score then, Germany surged ahead 3-2 at 1:57 of the third on a goal from AlexanderAckermann. But Rielly tied the score at 10:47 before threading a slick pass to Cousins at the side of theGerman net for the game-winning goal at 15:18.

Twice Canada rallied from a one-goal deficit to improve to 6-0 all-time against Germany. More importantly,the Canadians advanced to a semifinal showdown Saturday against their arch rivals from the United States, whoare unbeaten.

It will be the first meeting of the tournament between the two teams but Canada edged the Americans 2-1 inan exhibition contest prior to this event.

“Obviously, Canada-U.S. is a huge, huge hockey rivalry and there will be no lacking of emotions,''Williamson said. ``We just have to play under control and with controlled emotions.

“Even in the exhibition game we had against them, there's a love-hate relationship there but also a lot ofmutual respect as well and you won't find any two countries that have more pride. The Americans are adifferent team than they were in that exhibition game but every team here is different. I know our team hascome a long way since then and so has theirs.''

Ryan Murray and Brett Ritchie had the other goals for Canada.

Williamson wasted no time heaping lavish praise on the Germans.

“That was as hard-fought a hockey game as I've been involved in,'' he said. “No player gave an inch andboth teams, I thought, played with incredible pride and inspiration.

“But I was very, very proud of how our guys buckled down and really found a way to win that hockeygame.''

Williamson added he was especially pleased with his team's ability to stay focused and for the most partnever showed panic or desperation after falling behind.

“I thought we played extremely hard and did the right things for the most part,'' he said. ``We did rush afew things and you could feel that a little bit.

“But I thought after the second period we were able to concentrate on taking deep breaths and relaxing andrealizing if we stuck with it good things would happen.''

Penalties:
   00:52 GER 27 Kilian Keller (Hooking)
   02:10 CAN 21 Seth Griffith (Interference)
   03:05 CAN 6 Scott Harrington (Delay of Game)
   06:16 CAN 21 Seth Griffith (Slashing)

Penalties:
   04:58 GER 19 Christian Kretschmann (Slashing)
   06:37 GER 12 Oliver Mebus (Tripping)
   08:50 CAN 10 Austen Brassard (Hooking)
   15:47 CAN 18 Alan Quine (Holding)
   16:06 CAN 5 Ryan Murray (Slashing)

Penalties:
   08:57 GER 13 Lars Grozinger (Holding)
   13:38 GER 15 Daniel Fischbuch (Tripping)