Spengler Cup
Thursday, December 27, 2001
Davos, Switzerland

An other exciting afternoon in Davos was expected and both teams have taken it for granted. Turku, the Fnnish champs with a few former NHL starplayers (eter Schaefer and Mika Alatalo for example) and former AHL cracks (Rob Shearer) was entering into the tournament with fast transition game and speed, The gameplan was easy to read, because Canada Selects had their opening game the night before vs. Mannheim and could have been tired.

But the Canadian professionals opened the score by a nice combination between Christian Dubé and Ryan Savoia in the early minutes of the game.

During the first and large parts of the second period fresh Turku made the pace and had a lot of scoring chances. Finally, in the 30th minute of this entertaining and fast played game, The Fins equlaized the game. It was the first goal against a Canadian keeper after 90 minutes of play in this tournament (in the first match for the selection former NHL player for Phoenix and now Springfield Falcon Patrick Desrochers had a shutout).

In the last period the crowd (again the Davos stadium had a sold out situation, third time 7680 fans in the third game of Spengler Cup) saw again a coast to coast game with a lot of scoring opportunities for both teams. The start into this period was more than interesting and exciting: In the first minute of play Canada scored by Mike Maneluk and was contered by the newly equalizer of former Davos and Columbus Blue Jacket player Kai Nurminen by a very nice breakaway. During the last period, it was Canada Selects with more killer instinct and without a lack of physical impact who had taken control of the game with two goals with an unassisted goal from Mike Gaul and a fast breakaways by Jean-Yves Roy.

But Turku is a team to watch in the following games of the tournament. They had made a very strong impression.

Game Summary