Canada beats Belarus, advances to semi-final at 2015 World Championship

Igor Burdetskiy May 16, 2015

0 1 minute read

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - MAY 14: Canada's Tyler Ennis #63, Tyler Seguin #91, Sean Couturier #7 and David Savard #58 celebrate after a second period goal while Belarus' Kevin Lalande #35 and Alexander Kitarov #77 look on during quarterfinal round action at the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. (Photo by Andre Ringuette/HHOF-IIHF Images)

After all was said and done, 13 players recorded points in a very much one-sided victory for Canada . To go along with Seguin’s three goals, defenceman Brent Burns had two goals and two assists and forward Ryan O’Reilly had two goals and one assist as well.

Jason Spezza picked up a goal and assist making him the current tournament leading scorer with 13 points. While a whopping five of the top seven scorers happen to also all be Canadian.

Netminder Mike Smith stopped all 24 shots to earn his first shutout of the tournament.

Canada opened the scoring in the first minute, added three more goals later in the first period, and cruised to a 9-0 win to advance to its first semi-finals since 2009.

“I thought it was great,” said O’Reilly. “Sometimes we don’t start the way we wanted to, and today I felt we did exactly what we wanted to. We came out and had great intensity. We started right away. We held on to the puck. We were working together, and again, Smitty played a great game. It’s something that we’re definitely proud of, but we have to get ready and focus on the next game.”

Canada has now scored an impressive 58 goals in eight games, the most since it scored as many in 1962.

“It’s nice to put ourselves in a position to get to the finals,” said captain Sidney Crosby. “That’s the important thing, to get better every game. At this point, you’ve got to be at your best. It’s win or go home. We did a good job today.”

A little fun-fact for those who care to know was that Tyler Seguin scored his first regular-season NHL goal in this very same arena, on October 10, 2010, in a 3-0 win over the then Phoenix Coyotes.

Subscribe to this author's posts feed via RSS

Bio
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
Latest Posts

Igor Burdetskiy

Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & CEO at Hooked on Hockey Magazine

I grew up playing Ball and Roller Hockey day and night somewhat religiously throughout elementary and middle school. The two don't compare though when I lace up the skates and hit the ice. I live and breathe hockey beyond the perspective of "it's just a game" and I will gladly talk hockey for hours with anyone. Hockey is more than just a lifestyle, it's a culture of passionate people who make memories every time the puck is dropped. Hockey has not only helped me get through some of the hardest times in life but has created some of the best memories to date. Want to talk hockey with me? Shoot me an email: iburdetskiy@hookedonhockey.com and let's talk some hockey!