Canada Wins Karjala Cup Debut Against Switzerland

Canada survived a late-surge from Switzerland to win their first ever game at the Karjala Cup.

Canada may have had more scoring chances in the first half of the game, but the Swiss still found the back of the net before Canada could. At 5:43, Michael Fora's point shot went off Gilbert Brule's glove and soared through Canada's zone before sliding through Ben Scrivens' legs and landing in the back of the net, giving Switzerland the 1-0 lead at 5:43.

At 8:24, Canada struck back. In fact, it was Brule who would end Jonas Hiller's shutout after Chay Genoway skated around with the puck, dancing around Switzerland's wingers. Genoway would then set up Simon Despres, who's shot would get stopped by Hiller's shoulder. The rebound, however, landed in arms reach for Brule, who got his stick down and knocked it in to tie the game up at one.

After an absolutely marvellous save by Hiller 13 minutes into the period, Canada found their stride and scored two more goals. At 15:43, a blast from the point by Karl Stollery was tipped in front by Eric O'Dell, who created enough traffic in front to make the second goal happen. Then, exactly one minute later, Matt Ellison chased in a rebound opportunity from a Geoff Kinrade dump in, picking up the rebound and roofing it over Hiller to make it 3-1.

Canada wouldn't surrender their lead, but they did allow the Swiss to find the back of the net with under two minutes to go. This time, Romain Loeffel's slap shot from the blue line was too much for Scrivens to handle, easily beating the former NHLer. But in the end it wouldn't matter, as Canada would hold on long enough to take the 3-2 win.

Canada will get a day off on Friday to travel out to Finland, where they'll meet with Sweden on Friday evening. Switzerland will do the same, facing the Czech Republic earlier in the day.

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