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catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
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 Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 10:18 am Post subject: World Hockey Championships |
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Gold medal game between Canada and Finland will be on at 1:00 AM Korean time. I shall be watching.
http://live82.ihwc.net/english/ |
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catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 11:41 am Post subject: |
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KHODYNKA--The roads to Quebec City and Halifax are paved with gold after Canada won its third IIHF World Championship in five years and 24th gold all-time tonight by outplaying Finland with clinical precision in the May 13 finale in Moscow.
The score was 4-2, but make no mistake--Canada was in control virtually from the drop of the puck to the final horn. Cam Ward was in net for Canada and made 20 saves for the win. Tournament MVP Rick Nash led the way with two goals.
Canada now goes home to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the IIHF with the daunting task of defending its gold medal on home ice, something that has been done only once before in 72 World Championships. The Soviets won in 1978 in Prague and then defended their title the next year in Moscow. Only four other teams have had a chance to do the same, but none was successful.
The Finns have now lost five important international gold medal games since winning their only World Championship gold in 1995--three World Championships (2001, 1999, 1998), one Olympics (2006), and one World Cup (2004).
Canada's win today was remarkably efficient. You could count on one hand the number of defensive-zone miscues by the Canadians, and on the other hand you could tally the good scoring chances by the Finns and still have fingers left over.
Canada's puck pressure was too much for the opposition, who appeared tired after their emotional 2-1 upset of the Russians the day before. Goalie Kari Lehtonen, who had been so brilliant here in Moscow, had an untimely off-day in the crease, recording 14 saves on 18 Canadian shots.
Canada opened the scoring on the power play thanks to two fine solo efforts by Jordan Staal and Rick Nash. In Staal's case, he deked Toni Soderholm out of his jock on a one-on-one situation, and the Finnish defenceman had no choice but to haul him down and take a penalty. On the ensuing power play, Nash came off the side boards, went straight to the net on his off wing and drilled a great shot off the far post and in past Lehtonen at 6:30.
If Soderholm's penalty was "good" in the sense that he prevented a great scoring chance, the interference penalty that Tuomo Ruutu took at 12:17 was senseless. He knocked down Colby Armstrong who was 30 metres from the puck, and his team paid a dear price for that act.
Justin Williams made a great play at the blueline to bat the puck out of mid-air on a clearing attempt, and the puck landed on Mike Cammalleri's stick. He made a beautiful touch pass to Eric Staal, and his deft deke fooled Lehtonen. The 2-0 deficit after 20 minutes was a serious cause for concern for the Finns. In the last four games, Canada had now outscored the opposition in the first period by an incredible 10-0.
The Canadians had an excellent chance to blow the game open early in the second with a lerngthy 5-on-3, but they came up empty and the Finns, not looking very confident, were still just a shot away from making a game of it.
That all changed when Lehtonen flubbed a routine shot from the top of the circle by Armstrong off a simple drop pass by Jordan Staal. The puck went under his glove, and with the 3-0 lead, Canada looked to have pretty much wrapped up the gold medal. Canada was playing with such poise and was in such control, it seemed impossible that Finland could rally. Lehtonen was having a bad game at the worst possible time. He was not alone among his teammates, though.
The Finns finally generated some momentum with less than 10 minutes to go. Petri Kontiola broke Ward's shutout at 11:08 when he ripped a loose puck past the goalie's glove after the first true bit of sloppiness by the Canadians in their own end.
Finland really made things interesting with a goal at 17:44 off another scrambly play, Antti Miettinen whacking home a loose puck with Ward out of position to cut the deficit to 3-2.
Nash ensured the gold medal with a spectacular goal with 1:06 to go, fighting off defenseman Pekka Saravo on a breakaway and beating Lehtonen with a great deke. It might have been the goal of the tournament.
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ajgeddes
Joined: 28 Apr 2004
Location: Yongsan
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| Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 4:21 pm Post subject: |
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| I wish I could care more about the World Championships, but I just can't. It just isn't the best, so it means nothing to me. However, the guys did do a good job to win. |
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Boodleheimer
Joined: 10 Mar 2006
Location: working undercover for the Man
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| Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 4:34 pm Post subject: |
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it's a pity that so many players are busy with the Stanley Cup playoffs. international ice hockey is so much nicer to watch than the North American tiny ice rink variety.
the Czech Republic will kick your butts next year, Canada! |
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supernaut
Joined: 04 Jan 2007
Location: Nova Scotia
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| Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 7:57 pm Post subject: |
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| KWhitehead wrote: |
it's a pity that so many players are busy with the Stanley Cup playoffs. international ice hockey is so much nicer to watch than the North American tiny ice rink variety.
the Czech Republic will kick your butts next year, Canada! |
I personnaly don't enjoy the larger ice surface, the game is much more boring and slower, with less hitting. And far less playmaking. |
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ajgeddes
Joined: 28 Apr 2004
Location: Yongsan
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| Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 8:49 pm Post subject: |
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| supernaut wrote: |
| KWhitehead wrote: |
it's a pity that so many players are busy with the Stanley Cup playoffs. international ice hockey is so much nicer to watch than the North American tiny ice rink variety.
the Czech Republic will kick your butts next year, Canada! |
I personnaly don't enjoy the larger ice surface, the game is much more boring and slower, with less hitting. And far less playmaking. |
Agreed. |
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Canuck Teacher
Joined: 18 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 10:49 pm Post subject: |
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| I'd have to say that the most exciting hockey to watch is the World Juniors. Its always hard hitting, fast, with end-to-end rushes that make me think back to the glory days of nhl hockey when sticks weren't used for a free ride down the rink. those jr boys play with amazing skill and an obvious passion that wont be found in most nhl games. |
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Roch
Joined: 24 Apr 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 3:03 am Post subject: |
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| KWhitehead wrote: |
it's a pity that so many players are busy with the Stanley Cup playoffs. international ice hockey is so much nicer to watch than the North American tiny ice rink variety.
the Czech Republic will kick your butts next year, Canada! |
Darn right about the tiny rinks blowing, eh.
Congrats to Canada - yet again. Geez, are these people ever going to be unseated for supremacy in ice hockey?
Maybe Team U.S.A. will get lucky in Halifax, Nova Scotia next year. I doubt it, though. |
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Roch
Joined: 24 Apr 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 3:20 am Post subject: |
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| Canuck Teacher wrote: |
| I'd have to say that the most exciting hockey to watch is the World Juniors. Its always hard hitting, fast, with end-to-end rushes that make me think back to the glory days of nhl hockey when sticks weren't used for a free ride down the rink. those jr boys play with amazing skill and an obvious passion that wont be found in most nhl games. |
This is the best post in Dave's history. Forking right it is!
I can not wait to see the championships in Halifax and Quebec City next year. Should be the nuts. |
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Boodleheimer
Joined: 10 Mar 2006
Location: working undercover for the Man
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| Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 9:39 pm Post subject: |
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| supernaut wrote: |
| I personnaly don't enjoy the larger ice surface, the game is much more boring and slower, with less hitting. And far less playmaking. |
i think you mean "more graceful". i prefer it to watching people ram into each other at close range.
(they should build up speed before ramming.) |
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supernaut
Joined: 04 Jan 2007
Location: Nova Scotia
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| Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 12:27 am Post subject: |
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| KWhitehead wrote: |
| supernaut wrote: |
| I personnaly don't enjoy the larger ice surface, the game is much more boring and slower, with less hitting. And far less playmaking. |
i think you mean "more graceful". i prefer it to watching people ram into each other at close range.
(they should build up speed before ramming.) |
You obviously dont watch much hockey, if there's one problem with the NHL, it's that there are too many teams.
I miss the old 80's NHL when all rinks were different, so teams were built for the rink. Boston, Chicago and Philly all had small rinks and all the others were bigger, but asll different sizes, so all games you watched had a different feel to it.
I find with larger rinks, teams have more room for defensive gameplans and you almost always see lower scores.
With smaller rinks, you can do one great move and you've lost your defender and your closer to the net and get a better scoring chance. Smaller rinks can breed excellent physical hockey players, Cam Neely (my all time favorite player), but Denis Savard also made a living deaking someone from the corner and getting to the net in 2 strides.
Baseball stilll has all different sizes fields (think Yankee Stadium, Fenway, Camden, Arlington and Skydome - all very different). In my opnion this is one of the things that makes baseball great.
I find when watching international hockey with 2 evenly matched teams, most of the game will be played in the neutral ice area, which makes for absolutely boring hockey to watch (as well as play) |
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