Canada 5 Finland 3
HELSINKI, Finland — Canada rose to the occasion and met its toughest test yet at the IIHF World Hockey Championship.
Evander Kane’s goal 6:04 into the third period stood up as the winner Friday as Canada twice overcame two-goal deficits in beating Finland 5-3.
The speedy forward took a pass from linemate Corey Perry before beating Kari Lehtonen with a quick shot. It was his second goal of the tournament.
Alex Burrows, John Tavares, Jeff Skinner and Jordan Eberle also scored for Canada (4-0-1), which moved atop Group H and now controls its own destiny moving towards the medal round.
Antti Pihlstrom, Mikko Koivu and Jussi Jokinen replied for Finland (4-1-0).
There was an electric atmosphere for a game that had been sold out for weeks. Chants of “Su-o-mi! Su-o-mi!” started more than 10 minutes before the opening faceoff at Hartwall Arena and rarely subsided throughout the night.
The Finns harnessed the emotion of their fired-up home crowd and took advantage of a couple gaffes by Canada to build a quick 2-0 lead.
A Kyle Quincey neutal zone turnover resulted in a 2-on-1 that saw Niko Kapanen find Pihlstrom all alone to make it 1-0 at 5:53. To make matters worse, Quincey was soon sent to the penalty box for cross-checking and teammate Dion Phaneuf followed, resulting in a 5-on-3 disadvantage.
After Canada killed the first penalty, Koivu knocked home a rebound at 10:31. Canadian coach Brent Sutter called a timeout to try and settle his rattled players.
They responded with a much better second period that saw them put three goals behind Lehtonen — matching the total Finland had allowed through 13 periods in the entire tournament.
Burrows made it 2-1 at 5:34 after bringing the puck out from behind the net. It came on one of his first shifts after making a return from a concussion suffered in the opening game of the event.
Jokinen restored Finland’s two-goal advantage just over two minutes later — Skinner was in the penalty box for Canada — by one-timing a shot past Cam Ward but Tavares answered that goal at the end of a 2-on-1 rush with Skinner at 14:31.
The turning point came just before the end of the period with Canada pressing. Skinner jumped off the bench and collected a loose puck before circling behind the goal and beating Lehtonen with a wraparound to make it 3-3 at 18:18.
After Kane gave Canada its first lead of the game, the Finns pressed hard for the tying goal. Ward made two huge stops seconds apart during a late power play opportunity, sliding across his crease with the pads stacked on the second shot.
Eberle hit the empty night with 24.1 seconds remaining to secure the victory.
Notes: Shots in the first period were 15-4 for Finland ... Ryan Murray was scratched for Canada after the arrival of defenceman Kris Russell, who picked up an assist 24 hours after arriving in Helsinki ... Canada wraps up the round robin with games against Kazakhstan (Saturday) and Belarus (Tuesday) ... Announced attendance was 13,059.