Canada clinch top spot in group with 3-2 win over Sweden in IIHF World Championships
Canada came up with a superb performance against Sweden in their final game of the qualification round.
The North Americans proved to be the better of the two teams on the night and won the game to qualify for the quarterfinals of the 2011 IIHF World Championships.
Brent Burns was one of the game changing players on the day, who scored the all important goal that won the game for Canada. Burns scored the goal midway during the third period during power-play to get into the lead.
The lead stayed till the end of the game and saw the Canadians winning 3-2 in the end. The win also put Canada in the top spot in Group F, which means that they will be facing Russia in the quarterfinals.
Canada came up with a brilliant all around performance with James Neal and John Tavares scorer of the other two goals. Goal keeper of Canada, Jonathan Bernier also came up with a dominating performance and played an important role in the team’s victory.
"We wanted to win", Burns said. "We wanted to test ourselves and get better as the tournament goes along. We knew they'd be a big test. They're a great team with a lot of size and skill. Those are the games that are fun to be a part of".
It was just the second minutes that the Canadians started to attack and Neal scored the opening goal after Captain Rick Nash passed the puck to him. Sweden also came up with strong attacks and levelled the scores with a goal during a power-play.
Rookie Star, Jeff Skinner did a phenomenal job during the game as he came up with an assist for Tavares, who scored to put the Canadians back into the lead. The Swedish were absolutely relentless on the power-plays and successfully scored through Tedenby
to level the scores once again.
However, Burns scored the deciding goal of the game to hand the Canadians a win and the top spot in their group.
"They're probably the best team, at least on paper", Swedish defenseman, Carl Gunnarsson said, "so we had to go out there and fight every shift to keep up with these guys. All their lines are really good, and their power play is outstanding. It's always
fun to play against them".
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