2004 IIHF World Junior Championship

Canada 10 Ukraine 0

Round Robin
December 29, 2003
Helsinki , FIN

CANADA POUNDS UKRAINE

It took all of 33 seconds for Team Canada to begin its 10-0 victory over the Ukraine on Monday in Finland at the 2004 World Juniors, as Jeff Carter tapped in a nice pass across the slot from Brent Burns. Mere seconds later, at the 1:17 mark, Anthony Stewart converted a feed from Mike Richards and Brent Seabrook and the rout was on early.

But after a missed power player opportunity, when the Ukraine’s Oleksiy Lubnin took a high sticking call, and then Canadian goalie Josh Harding took a delay of game penalty for shooting the puck above the glass, Canada stalled out temporarily. It wasn’t until 14:17 of the first that Canada scored its third goal, by Seabrook from Ryan Getzlaf and Josh Gorges. That was all the scoring in the first period, as Canada outshot the Ukraine 14-3, forcing Ukraine to change goalies, inserting Illia Tarankov for starter Yevgeniy Galyuk.

The second period was a much different story, as Team Canada added six more goals, beginning with a nice breakaway market by Jeff Tambellini, while outshooting the Ukraine 18-5.

Canada did an excellent job of spreading out the scoring and playing as a team, as no one player scored more than two points. Daniel Paille and Nigel Dawes each scored two goals, while Maxime Talbot and Tambellini both had a goal and an assist to lead Canada to a perfect 3-0 record to date.
Harding, making his World Junior Championship debut in goal for Canada, faced 11 shots to earn the shut out.

Canada had 23 shots in the third period but came away with just one goal, thanks to the work of Ukraine goaltender Tarankov.

Canada has an off day on Tuesday, other than practising in the morning, as they team prepares for an important match on Dec. 31 versus the Czech Republic. 

Canada's next game: Wednesday, Dec. 31, and can be seen on TSN/RDS beginning at 8:30am ET, and heard on the FAN radio network (www.fan590.com)