Unsurprisingly, Canada defeated France in its final game of the 2022 World Hockey Championship group stage on Tuesday in Finland.
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The Maple Leaf won 7-1, ending a two-game losing streak. Indeed, the men of head coach Claude Julien had previously lowered their flag against Switzerland and Denmark.
Canada thus completes the preliminary phase of the international competition with a record of 5-0-0-2. He finished third in Group A.
Facing the French, Dylan Cozens, Maxime Comtois, Pierre-Luc Dubois (twice), Eric O’Dell, Zach Whitecloud and Damon Severson moved the ropes for Canada.
In front of the winners’ cage, goalkeeper Chris Driedger only faced 19 shots. He only gave in on a shot from Anthony Rech.
For its quarter-final duel, Canada will have quite a challenge, since it will face Sweden (5-1-1-0). It concluded its preliminary phase with a short victory of 1 to 0 over Latvia (2-1-0-4).
Switzerland at the top
It was Switzerland (6-1-0-0) who completed the preliminary round at the top of Group A.
Earlier in the day, the Helvetians obtained their prestigious rank by defeating Germany (5-0-1-1) 4-3 in a penalty shootout. The losers of this duel must therefore be satisfied with the second level of the classification.
Nico Hischier and Damien Riat beat goaltender Philipp Grubauer during the shootout. At the other end of the ice, Reto Berra was perfect against the four German shooters who presented themselves in front of him.
This is the first time that Switzerland have not suffered a defeat in the preliminary round since the 2013 edition of the tournament.
“I remember that year well,” Berra told the IIHF website, who was there. On the way to our silver medal, we also won all of our group stage matches. We had won every game until the final. Off the ice, as a team, I feel like it’s similar. We are having fun and enjoying these weeks here together.”
In the quarter-finals, the Swiss have an appointment with the Americans (3-2-0-2). They defeated Norway (1-1-0-5) 4 to 2 for their last lap in the preliminary round.
In short
Finland (6-0-1-0) beat the Czech Republic (4-0-1-2) 3-0 on the day to secure a top spot in Group B. The Finns will face the Slovakia (4-0-0-3) in the quarter, she who made short work of the Danes at the count of 7 to 1 earlier Tuesday. Germany will face the Czechs in the next stage of the 2022 World Championship.
