WJC: Canada Beats Russia in Thrilling Shootout

The drive for five is still alive as Canada had to dig deep Saturday to come up with a thrilling 6-5 victory in a shootout against Russia.

Down by a goal with 2.20 left in the game, Canada looked dead and buried but miraculously tied it with 5.4 seconds left as Jordan Eberle found a loose puck in front of the Russian crease and backhanded it past Vadim Zhelobnyuk. 

That seemed to ignite the fans in Ottawa as Canada looked desperate in overtime while the Russians appeared to be extremely exhausted having played the night before. The game was finally settled in the shootout with goals from Eberle and Tavares for Canada, on the other side the Russians failed on their two attempts hitting the post on the first and the second one easily stopped by Dustin Tokarski.

Canada, for the most part, took it to Russia in this game, but to their credit, the Russians always had an answer and never gave up. Canada never trailed until late in the third with goals from Sonne, Cormier, and Eberle, but each time they scored it was answered quickly by Russia as they got goals from Goncharov, Klopov, and Grachev, and early in the third the score was deadlocked, 3-3. 

The Russians appeared to be very determined. Despite being much weaker on paper, they appeared to frustrate Canada, particularly on the penalty kill as Canada's dominating power play (60 percent efficiency) struggled going a mere 1-for-7 on the night. 

Esposito scored a sensational shorthanded goal to give Canada the lead again at 4-3, but it was once again answered quickly when Sergei Andronov scored on a tap in on a Russian two man advantage.

It appeared the Russians had the game won when they took the lead for the first time when Klopov found a lose puck in the crease and fired it underneath Tokarski.  It looked to be all over for Canada and in fairness, it should have been. Russia missed an empty net with less than 40 seconds to go in the game that ended up going for an icing. 

The Russians would pay for that mistake as Jordan Eberle tied it with 5.4 seconds left in the game. 

The win was Canada's third straight against the Russians in the junior tournament as the Russians have not beaten Canada since 2003 when they won 3-2 in Halifax. Canada now meets Sweden on Monday in a re-match of last year gold medal game, which Canada won in overtime.