Canada to face Fins on Saturday
Posted Jan 2, 2014 03:25:43 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Anthony Mantha scored on a penalty shot and Griffin Reinhart had a goal and an assist as Canada beat Switzerland 4-1 on Thursday to reach the semifinals of the world junior hockey championship.
Canada will face Finland, who posted a 5-3 comeback win over the Czech Republic, in a semifinal on Saturday at Malmo Arena. That game will take place at 1:30pm Eastern time.
Curtis Lazar and defenceman Derrick Pouliot also scored for Canada, which is 20-0-0 and has a 130-34 goal advantage all-time against the Swiss at the world juniors.
This one was not as easy as previous meetings with the hard-working and team-play oriented Swiss, despite the boost from a pro-Canadian crowd of 2,580 at the Isstadion. The boisterous fans spent much of the game chanting goalie Zach Fucale’s name.
The Canadian squad had to battle the trap throughout the game but managed to score the first goal for the first time in five tournament games. Laughton brought the puck to the net and Reinhart scored on Canada’s third whack at the puck from a scramble in the crease.
The Swiss were caught on a line change and Samuel Kreiss bought down Mantha on a breakaway to draw a penalty shot 9:04 into the second frame. The big winger deked to the backhand to beat Marvin Nyffeler for his fifth goal of the tournament.
