Team Canada, consisting of a group of Canadian
college students and two former NHL draft picks,
captured the gold medal over Russia at the 23rd
Winter Universiade in Torino, Italy.
Bill Meltzer | NHL.com correspondent
Jan 31, 2007, 12:00 PM EST
Last year at the Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, Team Canada left a disheartened bunch after the pre-tournament gold medal favorite left without winning a medal. This year, a dedicated bunch of Canadian university students came to Torino and avenged their NHL counterparts with a stirring gold medal victory over two-time defending gold medalist Russia at the 23rd Winter Universiade.
Team Canada featured a pair of former NHL draftees in Torino: Defenseman Louis Mandeville (Canada's flag bearer at the opening ceremonies) was a ninth-round selection by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft. Goaltender Aaron Molnar was taken in the seventh round by the Colorado Avalanche in the same draft. The Canadians benefited from a seasoned squad, carrying only one freshman, Acadia University defenseman Brandon Roach, on the roster. Bronze medal winners in 2003, Canada has now collected a total of 10 Universiade ice hockey medals, previously striking gold in 1981 and 1991.
Often called the World University Games in North America, the international tournament is organized by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The games feature student-athletes between the ages of 17 and 28 who are enrolled full time at a post-secondary institution.
This year's Universiade was broken into two brackets. The tougher bracket (Pool B) consisted of Canada, the United States, Russia, Slovakia and South Korea playing at the Tazzoli Ice Stadium in Torino, a facility constructed for the Olympics last year. The other pool consisted of the host Italians, the Czech Republic, Finland, Kazakhstan, Great Britain and Japan playing at the Torre Pelice Ice Stadium, a site that was most recently a venue for the Division I U20 IIHF World Championships.
Getting off on the right foot
In the first game of the round-robin portion of the tournament, Team Canada showed it meant business by blanking the U.S. by a 5-0 score. University of New Brunswick forward Rob Hennigar got the Canadians on the board early with a power-play goal, and the lead was doubled up on the man advantage when University of Moncton forward Karl Fournier one-timed a feed from Roach past University of Rhode Island goaltender Anthony Feyock.
After a scoreless second period, the faster Canadians hemmed the Americans deep in their own zone for of the third period. Goals by Dan Rudisuela of Saint Mary's University, Acadia University's Brandon Benedict and University of Moncton's Pierre-Luc Laprise put the game out of reach. PEI University goaltender Paul Drew needed to make just 13 saves to record the shutout for Canada.
"As much as you don't want to run up the score, it is important to score as many goals as we can. The first differential after head-to-head play is goals for," said Team Canada head coach Trevor Steinburg to Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CI Sport) after the opening game.
Steinburg's point was borne out by some of the other early robin-robin results that saw top teams take on overmatched challengers. Slovakia whipped South Korea by 13-0 count, while the Czech Republic brutalized Great Britain 12-0 and Finland thrashed Japan, 9-4. The next day, Russia crushed the Koreans 9-0 while the Azzuri of Team Italy routed Britain 10-0. In the tournament's most lopsided game, the Finns battered the hapless Brits 22-1. In their final game, first-time tournament participants Great Britain received a 20-1 pounding from the Kazakhs.
In the more evenly matched games, Finland won a see-saw 3-2 game over the Czech Republic, while Team Slovakia goaltender Michal Stieranka made a sensational save with seven seconds left to deny Penn State University's Lukas DeLorenzo and preserve a 3-2 Slovakia win over the Americans. Russia beat Slovakia 4-2 in front of a sold-out Tazzoli Stadium. On Day Three, Japan upset the Italians 3-2 and Kazakhstan upended the Czechs 5-4 as a late-game Czech rally fell short. The Czechs, who featured featured Extraliga goaltender Jan Chabera of HC Mountfield (formerly Ceske Budejovice) and former NHL draftees Jiri Jakes (Boston Bruins, fifth round, 2001 Entry Draft) and Jan Kubista (Bruins, fourth round, 2002), were favored coming into the game.
In their next game, Canada elevated the bar with arguably the tournament's most dominant performance to date. For the first half of the opening period, South Korea defenders crowded around goaltender Sun-Ki Kim and went down repeatedly to block shots. The Canadians patiently waited for their opportunities and then started to pick apart their outgunned opponents.
The Koreans, run ragged from chasing the puck, were out-shot 74 to 10 and Canada scored five in the first period, five in the second and four in the third. Eleven different players scored for Team Canada. Brandon Benedict led the way with a hat trick, while St. Thomas University's Kyle McAllister tallied a pair. Drew and Molnar split the game in goal for Canada, sharing the shutout.
Day Four saw another big upset, as the Azzuri gave the decidedly pro-Italy crowd something to cheer about. Finland seemed overconfident and mistake-prone, even after a 1-1 first period. The Italians scored twice in the middle period to take a 3-1 lead and then hung on win 3-2. The same day, Team Japan goaltender Asari Kaku turned in a stellar performance against the Czechs, but ultimately fell 5-3.
Preparing for a showdown
With one game left before the marquee Canada-Russia showdown, the Russians took on Team USA while the Canadians faced Slovakia.
Before the USA-Russia game, Team USA coach Chad Cassel stressed the importance of scoring the first goal of the game. But Russia jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead on a pair of first-period, power-play goals. Andrei Rychagov scored from the goalmouth at 3:52 during a 5-on-3 advantage. Less than a minute later, Maxim Leskin extended the lead.
The Americans battled back gamely. First, Lukas DeLorenzo converted a feed from Penn State teammate Michael McMullen off a Russian turnover behind the net. In the middle period, DeLorenzo returned the favor. DeLorenzo corralled a loose rebound and chipped the puck over to McMullen, who stuffed the puck past Russian keeper Maxim Koryakin to tie the game 2-2.
The U.S. had their chances to grab the lead, but the Russians seized the opportunity in the latter half of the third period. First, Leskin scored his second goal of the match at 13:34 to restore the lead to Russia. Three minutes later, Rychagov drove through the slot to snap a shot past Feyock to give Russia a commanding 4-2 lead. Rychagov then scored an empty netter to finish off his hat trick and provide the Russians a 5-2 victory.
"Tonight was by far our best effort of the tournament," Cassel told USAhockey.com afterwards. "We controlled the game physically and made very few mistakes, but just couldn't convert on the opportunities we had after we tied the game in the second period."
Meanwhile, Canada had a considerably easier time handling Slovakia. The Canadians remained unscored upon in the tournament, cruising to an 8-0 victory on the strength of six power-play goals. Benedict scored another pair of goals for Canada, who also got two tallies apiece from Fournier and Dan Rudisuela. Mandeville and McAllister each scored once for Canada, while Drew stopped all 17 shots he faced, including several testers while the game was still 2-0.
The Canadian and Russian victories set up a head-to-head matchup for first-place in Pool B at sold-out Tazzoli Ice Stadium. All Canada needed to clinch was a tie. The Russians needed a victory.
Russia was unable to stay out of the penalty box early and Canada quickly made them pay with a pair of power-play goals. Rudisuela opened the scoring at the two-minute mark and McAllister soon followed up to forge a 2-0 lead. That's were the game remained through a cautiously played second period.
In the closing stanza, Russia finally snapped Canada's Universiade shutout streak at 223 minutes and 14 seconds, as Eugeny Isakov beat Drew to narrow the gap to single goal. Canada then got in penalty trouble, and the Russians finally capitalized on their 11th man-advantage to tie the game 2-2. Vladislav Dashkevich got the goal with four minutes left in the second period.
Although the tie was good enough to clinch Pool B, coach Steinburg was not thrilled with his team's performance. "We played hard, but not for 60 minutes," he told CI Sport. "We did accomplish the goal of winning the Pool, but we had the win in our sites."
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan proved it was for real with a 4-4 tie against Finland to win Pool A. The Kazakhs got off to an early 2-0 lead before Matti Pesonen (a forward for Division II Finnish minor league club Hermes) keyed a three-goal rally for the Finns in the middle period, but they couldn't hold off the Kazakh power play in the final period. The result set up Canada-Finland and Russia-Kazakhstan meetings in the semifinals.
Team Canada takes 2007 Universiade in Torino
Team Canada takes 2007 Universiade in Torino
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