Andrew Mangiapane and Canada are headed to the semis after a 6-3 win over Slovakia in quarterfinal action at the IIHF World Championship.
Martin Pospisil did not play in the contest after suffering an upper-body injury during Slovakia’s final group stage game Tuesday.
Canada 6, Slovakia 3
For the ninth straight tourney, Canada is off the final four.
Five different skaters found the back of the net as Canada survived a late Slovakia rally to advance with a 6-3 victory.
Mangiapane had two shots on goal in 14:50 of ice time.
Canada wasted little time to get going as just over three minutes into the tilt, Jared McCann poked the puck past a sprawling Samuel Hlavaj who came out to challenge the partial breakaway, to give the Canadians the early lead.
It didn’t end there with Pierre-Luc Dubois doubling it up after he picked up the puck off rebound from a Bowen Byram point shot and chipped it over the Slovak netminder.
Before the first stanza ended, Slovakia would get on the board off a favourable bounce with the puck bouncing into the net off Brandon Hagel’s stick as he attempted to stop a cross-crease feed. The goal was credited to Peter Cehlarik.
The middle frame saw a lone goal scored courtesy of Nick Paul off a one-timer from a Connor Bedard feed. Bedard walked into the slot and sold the shot to freeze Hlavaj before sliding it over to Paul who made no mistake making it 3-1.
The goals then come in a flurry.
Six minutes into the third, Dylan Guenther and Brandon Tanev scored 20 seconds apart with both markers coming off rebounds to extend the lead to four.
Despite surrendering two quick ones, Slovakia would get one back just 28 seconds after Tanev’s marker thanks to Milos Kelemen, snapping a wrister off the rush past Jordan Binnington.
A late push from Slovakia saw them add one more on the power play from Marek Hrivik but Paul would ice the game for good with an empty net goal for his second tally and third point of the game.
Binnington needed just 18 stops to backstop Canada to the semis with Hlavaj made 37 saves in the losing effort.
