Canada improves to 2-0 with another shutout win

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HOCKEY CANADA ONTARIO HOCKEY LEAGUE

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Turris' Pair, Mason's Goaltending Lead Canada to 2-0 Win Over Slovakia

by Alan Adams

PARDUBICE, Czech Republic – Canada is on a roll at the 2008 IIHF World Junior Championship.

Kyle Turris (New Westminster, BC/University of Wisconsin, WCHA) scored two power-play goals and goaltender Steve Mason (Oakville, ON/London, OHL) turned aside 22 shots to pace Canada to a 2-0 win over Slovakia on Thursday.

It was Canada's second triumph in as many days at this year's World Juniors, and the win came less than a day after an emotional tournament-opening 3-0 triumph over the Czech Republic.

Canada, the three-time defending gold medalist, has now won 20 consecutive games at the tournament. The last loss was to the United States in the 2004 gold medal game in Helsinki.

The Canadians have allowed only 19 goals during the 20-game winning streak, and they have not surrendered an even strength goal since the second game of the 2007 tournament against the Americans, a streak of more than 370 minutes.

Mason was quick to credit the work of Canada's defencemen with keeping the streaks alive in the Czech Republic.

"The defence was unbelievable at blocking shots," he said. "We are fortunate to have this bunch of guys in front of us."

Mason registered Canada's second straight shutout, following the 44-save performance of Jonathan Bernier (Laval, QC/Lewiston, QMJHL) against the Czechs.

"We knew coming into here that we have a lot of confidence in our goalies," said defenseman Luke Schenn (Saskatoon, SK/Kelowna, WHL).

After a goalless first period, the Canadians capitalized on a two-man advantage in the first minute of play in the second to take the lead.

Moving the puck quickly on the power play, Turris – named Canada's Player of the Game – was parked between the faceoff circles and deflected a point shot by Canadian captain Karl Alzner (Burnaby, BC/Calgary, WHL) past Slovak netminder Julius Hudacek just 54 seconds after the period's opening face-off.

Drew Doughty (London, ON/Guelph, OHL) was the workhorse on Canada's second goal of the game in the third period, as the blueliner made a clever spin-o-rama move to elude a Slovak forward and then broke in on a 3-on-1 with Turris, who took Doughty's pass and converted into a wide open net for the insurance marker.

"Drew just made a great move to get away from the Slovak guy and fed Kyle a perfect pass," said Schenn. “It was great to get that second goal and give us some breathing room."

It was the second straight game in which the Canadians scored two power-play goals. John Tavares (Oakville, ON/Oshawa, OHL) scored twice with the man advantage in the victory over the Czechs.

Hudacek was the only reason Thursday's game was close, producing an effort similar to the one turned in by Bernier in Canada's win over the host Czechs. He was a logical choice for Slovakia's Player of the Game award.

Mason wasn't as busy as his Slovak counterpart but was sharp when he had to be, preserving the shutout with just under three minutes left in the third period with an acrobatic save on a Slovakian power play.

Canada's takes to the ice in Pardubice next on Saturday, when they face Sweden.

"They are a good team and they will be ready for us," said Schenn.

*** GAME SUMMARY:

First Period Goals:

Penalties: 00:27 SVK 6 Tomas Marcinko (Interference-2 minutes) 02:11 CAN 17 Brad Marchand (Hooking-2 minutes) 07:25 SVK 19 David Skokan (Hooking-2 minutes) 11:35 SVK 25 Dalimir Jancovic (Hooking-2 minutes) 12:44 SVK 4 Michal Kozak (Tripping-2 minutes) 19:10 SVK 25 Dalimir Jancovic (High Sticking-2 minutes)

Second Period Goals: 00:54 CAN 19 Kyle Turris (27 Karl Alzner 8 Drew Doughty) PP2

Penalties: 00:14 SVK 8 Marek Biro (Hooking-2 minutes) 03:41 CAN 15 Luke Schenn (Tripping-2 minutes) 08:34 CAN 11 Zachary Boychuk (Cross Checking-2 minutes) 11:15 SVK Team (Too Many Men-2 minutes) 11:23 CAN 28 Claude Giroux (Hooking-2 minutes) 14:08 CAN 21 Riley Holzapfel (Elbowing-2 minutes) 17:13 SVK 6 Tomas Marcinko (High Sticking-2 minutes) 20:00 SVK 8 Marek Biro (Boarding-2 minutes)

Third Period Goals: 13:20 CAN 19 Kyle Turris (8 Drew Doughty ) PP

Penalties: 04:06 CAN 22 Shawn Matthias (Slashing-2 minutes) 05:18 SVK 23 Milan Balis (Interference-2 minutes) 08:35 SVK 17 Adam Bena (Interference-2 minutes) 11:57 SVK 23 Milan Balis (Hooking-2 minutes) 16:53 CAN 19 Kyle Turris (Delay of Game-2 minutes)

Goaltenders Slovakia 1 Julius Hudacek Canada 30 Steve Mason

Shots on Goal Slovakia 9-4-9-22 Canada 11-13-8-32 Player of Game Slovakia 1 Julius Hudacek Canada 19 Kyle Turris

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Mason puts up a wall at the World Juniors

By Aaron Bell

Steve Mason just made Craig Hartsburg’s decision that much tougher.

Hartsburg planned to split goaltending duties for Canada’s first two games at the World Junior Championships between Jonathan Bernier and Mason and then decide who to go with from there. Bernier put together a 44-save shutout performance in the opener on Boxing Day against the Czech Republic and on Thursday, Mason turned in a 2-0 shutout win over Slovakia.

“Obviously Jonathan set the bar pretty high,” said Mason, who plays in the OHL for the London Knights. “I was thinking last night that if I got the opportunity to start tonight that if I couldn’t better that then I definitely wanted to come out strong. I’m happy I came out with the shutout to kind of tie him. He was a little bit busier that I was but the team played great in front of me. We’re 2-0 now with no goals against – you can’t get any better than that.”

Mason made 22 saves in the game, including a point-blank drive by Marek Biro of the Windsor Spitfires on a late third period powerplay. Canada shut down seven powerplay opportunities against Slovakia and is perfect on 16 shorthanded opportunities in the first two games of the tournament.

“It’s so easy to play in front of a team like this,” said Mason, a Columbus Blue Jackets’ prospect. “All of the defencemen are really good at clearing the front of the net so the goaltenders can see the puck. That makes our job easier obviously.”

It was Canada’s first back-to-back shutout performances since the semi-final and final wins of the 2006 tournament in Vancouver. This is the first time that Canada has started the tournament with two shutouts.

Hartsburg said that he is happy with their performance in goal so far and he feels like it makes his goaltending decisions easier when both guys have shown that they are ready to carry the load.

“They do make it easy,” Hartsburg said. “They’re both good goalies. We feel confident that we have two great kids there that can handle any situation weather they are playing or not.”

Despite the competition on the ice, Mason said that the goalies respect each other and are ready to support whoever gets the nod.

“We both wanted to be the number one guy coming in,” said Mason, the OHL goaltender of the year last year. “Right now obviously we’ve both put a good game in and the next game is up on the air. We’re not sure who is going to get that start, but whoever it is, I know we’re both going to be rooting for each other. It’s working really well right now.”

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