Canada and Finland advance to World Ice Hockey semi-finals

At the end of the suspense, Andrew Mangiapane delivered Canada by scoring the winning goal (2-1) after 2’12  » of play in overtime against Russia. A liberating goal came from a superb action from Troy Stecher, author of the decisive pass. A thunderclap as Russia had dominated its subject so far in this World Championship, played in Riga in Latvia in front of a only local audience: a single setback for the partners of goalkeeper Sergei Bobrovski, while Canada had delivered a start more than sluggish with three defeats (against Latvia, the United States and Germany).

But that was before Andrew Mangiapane landed in Latvia, freed by his NHL franchise, Calgary Flames. After six days of « quarantine » in Riga, the left winger was able to join the team and put it right side up. This Thursday night, however, the Russian pressing almost got the upper hand in an intense match where it took 34’32  » of play to see Yevgeni Timkin score the first goal of the match and more than ten more before Adam Henrique does not equalize (1-1, 45’03  »), for his fifth achievement of this World Championship. The last world coronation of the Russian dates from 2014 (5-2 against Finland). In 2015, the Russians were dominated in the final by Canada (6-1).

In the other quarter-final of this Thursday evening, Finland dominated the Czech Republic (1-0), without much suspense, thanks to a realization of Jere Innala (32’55  »). Earlier in the day, the United States had crushed Slovakia (6-1), while Germany had surprised Switzerland (3-2).

Saturday in Riga, the semi-finals will pit Canada against the United States and Finland against Germany (to be followed on the Live Team platform). The final will take place on Sunday. In 2020 due to a pandemic, the world edition planned in Switzerland had been canceled.