Canada Takes Fifth Place at Hlinka Memorial With Win Over Finland

Canada has managed to finish fifth place at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament after beating Finland in a 4-3 thriller on Friday.

After eight straight gold medals, it was strange to see Canada competing in the fifth-place game at the tournament they have dominated for years. The team seemed dejected, and penalty issues early in the game resulted in a lead for the Finns. At the five-minute mark, with two players in the box for Canada, Sami Molianen finishes off a passing play on the cycle to give the Finns the 1-0 advantage.

With 24 seconds left in the period, Canada tied it all up. The youngest player in the tournament for Canada, Joseph Veleno, made a pass to Ian Mitchell, who banked it in right near the crease to tie the game up at one apiece.

Mitchell picked a good time to play his best game of the tournament. On the power play, Maxime Comtois made a great drop pass between his legs to Mitchell. The quick skating Mitchell then fired an accurate wrist shot from the point, beating Finnish netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen cleanly for the go-ahead goal.

Canada shook off a poor start to take a two-goal advantage. At the halfway point of the game, Nick Suzuki took a pass from Veleno before ripping a wicked wrist shot past Luukkonen, giving Canada the 3-1 lead.

With five minutes remaining in the second, Finland brought the game close again. This time, Aleksi Heponiemi found a streaking Linus Nyman all alone, giving one of Finland's best players in the game a chance to shine. Nyman did just that, beating Michael Dipietro blocker side to put Finland behind by just a single goal.

The game of momentum continued, with Finland feeding on some earlier energy to tie the game up. This time, Aleksi Heponoemi fed Santeri Virtanen all alone in front wit ha cross-crease pass, with Virtanen finishing off the play to knot the battle at three.

But that didn't stop Canada from scoring again. Hungry for more, Canada took advantage of a 5-on-3 with nine minutes to go to take the lead again. Mississauga Steelheads forward Owen Tippett found Michael Rasmussen all alone at the doorstep, a place where he had no chance of missing the puck to take the 4-3 lead. The lead would hold on for the remainder of the game, giving Canada the victory in an exciting final matchup for the two teams.

With the win, Canada managed to finish fifth place in the tournament, marking the first time they failed to medal at the event since 2007. For Finland, the team failed to build upon their four previous medals at the tournament, as well as their Under-18 gold medal from April.

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