Team Canada advances to semifinals at IIHF Men’s Worlds
Team Canada is off to the semifinals at the 2024 IIHF Men’s World Championship in Prague, Czechia.
Nick Paul scored a pair of goals while Jared McCann, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Dylan Guenther and Brandon Tanev added singles in Canada’s 6-3 win over Slovakia in quarterfinal play on Thursday. The victory pushes Canada into the semifinals, which will take place Saturday, May 25. The gold and bronze medal games will be held the following day.
It’s the ninth straight men’s worlds that Canada has advanced to at least the semifinals. They’ve played in each of the last four gold medal games, winning in 2023 and 2021.
Canada opened the scoring just 2:45 in when McCann flipped the puck over a diving Samuel Hlavaj in the Slovakian net, quickly making it 1-0. Soon after at 4:15, a point shot went though some traffic and produced a rebound that Dubois put in with a backhand shot to give Canada a 2-0 advantage.
The Slovakians got some momentum back when, at 7:56, a Peter Cehlarik shot went off Brandon Hagel’s stick and past Canadian netminder Jordan Binnington, making it a 2-1 game. The Slovaks nearly tied the game late in the period on a two-on-one but their scoring chance was interrupted by a perfectly placed Olen Zellweger stick.
Paul restored Canada’s two-goal lead 3:48 into the second period. Connor Bedard accepted a pass in the slot and then fed a wide open Paul at the bottom of the circle, scoring into a wide open net.
Slovakia was awarded the game’s first power play midway through the second but could not beat some strong Canadian defensive play. Shots were 13-9 in favour of Canada in the middle frame.
Canada went to a four-minute power play early in the third period but could not add to their lead. Shortly after the man advantage ended, Guenther redirected a pass from Paul to make it 4-1 and then, 20 seconds later at 6:40, Tanev backhanded a rebound in to give Canada a 5-1 advantage.
Slovakia quickly responded at 7:08 to cut Canada’s lead to 5-2. Then with 3:03 to play and Slovakia on a five-on-three power play, Marek Hrivik scored to get his squad back within two. The Slovaks pulled their netminder in the final minutes which allowed Paul to ice the game with 50 seconds remaining, making it a 6-3 final.
Canada remains undefeated at this year’s tournament following a 7-0 record in preliminary play, placing them atop Group A. The Canadians earned 19 of a possible 21 points, losing two points due to two of their victories coming in overtime.