CANADA EDGED IN SEMIS, WILL PLAY FOR BRONZE AT WORLDS
JESSICA GOWANS
COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Bo Horvat (London, Ont./London, NHL) and Colton Parayko (St. Albert, Alta./St. Louis, NHL) scored goals, but it wasn’t enough to complete the comeback as Canada’s National Men’s Team fell 3-2 to Switzerland in the semifinals Saturday at the 2018 IIHF World Championship.
With the loss, Canada will face the United States in the bronze medal game Sunday (9:45 a.m. ET/6:45 a.m. PT).
Down a goal heading into the third period, and behind by a pair early in the frame, Canada outshot the Swiss 18-1 in the final 20 minutes, but couldn’t get more than one puck past goaltender Leonardo Genoni, who was terrific.
Parayko made it close with just over two minutes to go and Canadian netminder Darcy Kuemper (Saskatoon, Sask./Arizona, NHL) on the bench, hammering in a one-timer to cut the deficit to one, but that would be as close as Canada would get.
Tristan Scherwey opened the scoring for the Swiss late in the first period, finishing off an end-to-end rush by snapping a shot past the glove of Kuemper.
Canada found the equalizer midway through the second when Bo Horvat (London, Ont./Vancouver, NHL) rushed into the Swiss end and beat Genoni over the shoulder, capping off a pretty sequence between himself, Jean-Gabriel Pageau (Ottawa, Ont./Ottawa, NHL) and Pierre-Luc Dubois (Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Que./Columbus, NHL).
Switzerland retook the lead on the power play a little over two minutes later; with the Canadian penalty killers pinned in their own zone for more than 90 seconds, Gregory Hoffman got his stick on a Kevin Fiala shot for the go-ahead goal.
Gaetan Haas stretched the lead to 3-1 on another man advantage early in the third. After the Canadians failed to get the puck out, Raphael Diaz found Sven Andrighetto, whose shot from the hashmarks was tipped home by Haas.
Canada finished the game with a 45-17 advantage on the shot clock.
Name | Team | Mins | Shots | Saves | GA | SV% |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Leonardo Genoni | SUI | 60 | 45 | 43 | 2 | 0.956 |
Darcy Kuemper | CAN | 57 | 17 | 14 | 3 | 0.824 |