Drew Doughty scored his second goal of the game at 2:32 in overtime to win against Finland at Bolshoy Ice Dome Sunday night to secure a birth in the quarterfinals.
With the goal Canada (2-0-1) is the third seeded team going into the quarterfinals as they played the last game of the round robin tournament in Sochi.
Doughty led the offensive charge for Canada scoring his third and fourth goals of the tournament against the Finns.
Tuomo Ruutu scored the lone goal from the Finns (2-1-0) who also qualify for the quarterfinals by forcing the game into overtime.
Since the game went to overtime, Team Sweden (3-0-0) secured the number one seed and Team USA (2-0-1) the second seed (goal differential was higher than Canada’s).
A questionable disallowed goal occurred at the 13:44 mark in the first period. Canadian forward Rick Nash took a swing at an Alex Pietrangelo shot that landed on the top the Finnish net. The puck ended up behind goalie Tuukku Rask. The play went under review and the Nash goal was called back from the referee because of a high stick.
IIHF rules state that a goal is disallowed “if an attacking player contacted the puck with the stick above the crossbar.”
The IIHF case book rule for this exact situation, says “if the player knocked the puck off without a high-sticking infraction and he was not in the goal crease at the moment the puck dropped into the crease, the goal shall be allowed.”
This goal should have counted and would have guaranteed Canada the number one seed heading into the quarterfinals.
Jarkko Immonen took an undisciplined penalty at 7:32 of the first for interference on Sidney Crosby.
On the man advantage Drew Doughty scored on a wrist shot with a passes from Shea Weber and Sidney Crosby. This was Doughty’s third goal of the tournament at 7:58 of the first period.
Rask made an acrobatic save on a Jon Toews’ wraparound attempt to keep it a 1-0 game heading into the first intermission.
Shots were tied 8-8 after one period of play.
Tuomo Ruutu scored the game tying-goal on a deflection at 2:00 of the second period with Jussi Jokinen and Ossi Vaananen chipping in the assists for Finland.
Finland had the momentum going into the third period despite the Canadian dominance of play outshooting the Finns 17-12 through the first two periods.
Rask made many key saves in the later stages of the third period most notably a glove save on a wrist shot from Marc-Edward Vlasic with 33 seconds left in the game.
On a rather easy evening, Carey Price made his biggest save of the game on a wrist shot from Finnish defenceman Sami Salo in the five minute overtime period. Price turned away 16 shots in his second win of the tournament.
Doughty scored the overtime winner after he came in off the left hand side of the ice taking a harmless shot that beat Rask through his equipment. Jeff Carter got the lone assist on the goal.
Rask made 25 saves in a losing effort earning him the second star of the game. He kept the Finns in the game, but it wasn’t enough to win the game.
“They played a pretty tight game and they’re a good team,” said Crosby “As players we know our role and it doesn’t matter what line we play on.” Today Drew Doughty knew what his role was: Overtime hero.
Canada will face the winner of Switzerland/ Latvia in their next game.
Shots were 27-17 for Canada.
Notes: CAN Marty St. Louis (scratched), PK. Subban (scratched), and Price got start despite playing shaky in his first game. FIN forward Alex Barkov will miss remainder of tournament (Lower Body), Mikko Koivu and Valtteri Flippula (injured), and Tuukka Rask start for Finland. Since the NHL began participating in the Winter Olympics with Nagano in 1998, no player has more goals at the Games than Selanne’s 15. Canada was 0 for 3 on the power-play entering the game.
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