HALIFAX – Patrick Sharp and Shane Doan each scored shorthanded and Canada won its sixth straight game with a 6-3 victory over Finland at the 2008 IIHF World Championship on Monday.
 
Canada clinched top spot in Group F and will play either Norway in Latvia in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. Canada beat Latvia 7-0 in the preliminary round and the defending world champs were 2-1 winners over Norway in earlier qualifying round action.
 
Finland, meanwhile, will face the United States in the other quarterfinal here on Wednesday.
 
Doan and Dany Heatley, with his tournament-leading eighth and ninth goals, each scored twice. Ryan Getzlaf, with his first goal of the tournament, also scored as Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Nova Scotia premier Rodney MacDonald looked on from their seats at the Metro Centre.
 
The Canadians now have a 15-game streak the world championship and improved to 32-6-2 all-time against Finland.
 
Getzlaf opened the scoring 33 seconds after the game's opening face-off. He split the Finnish defence and his wrist shot caught the upper left corner of the net.
 
The Finns tied it at 5:39, with Antti Pihlstrom beating goalie Pascal Leclaire to the short side while Canada was on the power play.
 
But Doan then put Canada ahead to stay at 9:29 of the first. He had clear path to the Finnish net but the puck rolled off his stick before he could get his shot away. Doan spun around, picked up the loose puck and scored on the forehand, having just a sliver of the net to shoot at because of the bad angle.

The Canadians took control of the game in the second half of the second period when goals by Heatley and Sharp sealed the win.
 
The line of Heatley, Getzlaf and Rick Nash all touched the puck on a play that saw Getzlaf made a great pass to Heatley, who in turn had a great finish to make it 3-1. He slid out from the side of the net and tucked a backhand shot in on the short side at 10:17 of the second period.
 
The Heatley-Getzlaf-Nash trio accounted for eight points against the Finns and has now combined for 32 points in six games.
 
With Ed Jovanovski in the penalty box, Sharp capitalized on a miscue by a Finnish defenceman at the Canadian blueline. Sharp breezed down the wing and scored on a crisp low shot at 18:12 of the second.
 
Doan netted his second goal of the game at 1:07 of the third when his shot first deflected off a Finnish stick and then hit a Finn in the head on its way to the back of the net.
 
With Canada nursing a 2-1 lead, Leclaire was particularly sharp in the first half of the second period when he made a handful of sound saves.
 
Pihlstrom scored at 8:34 of the third to make it 5-2 and Heatley answered with his second goal of the day at 18:02.
 
Tuomo Ruutu rounded out the scoring with a goal at 19:37 of the third.

1

2

3

Final

2

2

2

6

1

-

2

3

Goals/Buts :
0.33 - Canada 51. GETZLAF, Ryan (8. BURNS, Brent, 61. NASH, Rick)
5.39 - Finland 38. PIHLSTROM, Antti - SH
9.29 - Canada 19. DOAN, Shane - SH

Penalties/Pénalités :
1.14 - 2 min Canada 24. STAIOS, Steve - Interference
3.58 - 2 min Finland 6. VAANANEN, Ossi - Hooking
8.25 - 2 min Canada 51. GETZLAF, Ryan - Slashing

Goals/Buts :
30.17 - Canada 15. HEATLEY, Dany (51. GETZLAF, Ryan, 61. NASH, Rick)
39.12 - Canada 10. SHARP, Patrick, 21. MAYERS, Jamal) - SH

Penalties/Pénalités :
35.10 - 2 min Canada 9. ROY, Derek - Tripping
37.48 - 2 min Canada 55. JOVANOVSKI, Ed - Interference

Goals/Buts :
41.07 - Canada 19. DOAN, Shane (16. TOEWS, Jonathan)
48.34 - Finland 38. PIHLSTROM, Antti (9. KOIVU, Mikko)
58.02 - Canada 15. HEATLEY, Dany (61. NASH, Rick, 51. GETZLAF, Ryan)
59.37 - Finland 15. RUUTU, Tuomo (9. KOIVU, Mikko, 36. JOKINEN, Jussi)

Penalties/Pénalités :
46.43 - 2 min Finland 18. HYVONEN, Hannes - Hooking
47.14 - 2 min Canada 8. BURNS, Brent - Holding
53.03 - 2 min Finland 8. SELANNE, Teemu - Hooking

CRUNCH TIME FOR CANADIANS AND FINNS AT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

by Alan Adams

For all intents and purposes, the 2008 IIHF World Championship begins today.

The warm-up games are over for Canada and starting with today's game against Finland, the road to the top gets steeper as the tournament goes on.

The winner of the Canada-Finland game clinches top spot in Group F heading into Wednesday's quarterfinals. The Finns set up this scenario with a 3-2 victory over the United States on Sunday.

Because of time and travel considerations, this year is different in that the quarterfinals will not be the usual crossover format. Instead, the top team in Group F will play the fourth team in the same group, and the second and third place teams will meet.

That's where things get interesting.

Latvia and Norway are vying for fourth place, and the Latvians helped their cause with a 4-1 win over the Norwegians on Sunday.

Latvia can clinch fourth spot and a place in the quarterfinals with a win over Germany on Monday night. Norway must beat a tough United States team in the afternoon game or have Germany beat Latvia in regulation time to gain that final playoff position.

Meanwhile, the Canadians can help themselves with a win over the Finns.

Canada takes a five-game winning streak at this year’s tournament into the game against Finland, a team that features 12 NHL players including Teemu Selanne, brothers Mikka and Saku Koivu and goaltender Niklas Backstrom.

A sixth straight win by the defending world champions would set up a Finland-United States sequel on Wednesday, with the winner advancing to the semi-finals.

The Canadians are coming off a 10-1 win over Germany and this time the scoring was spread around, with Eric Staal scoring four goals and linemate Martin St. Louis collecting five assists.

The offensive explosion brought a smile to the face of head coach Ken Hitchcock as it came at a crucial time in the two-week tournament.

"We're starting to kick in on more cylinders now," Hitchcock said after the win over Germany. "Hopefully, [it's] the start of putting together the complete package – we're going to need it."

The point Hitchcock was making is that the easy part is over and the margin for error from here on in is razor-thin.