FOUR GOALS IN SECOND HELP CANADA TO WIN OVER JAPANESE

NAGANO, Japan – Greg Westlake (Oakville, Ont.) scored shorthanded just 46 seconds into the second period to open the floodgates and Canada’s National Sledge Team scored four times in the middle frame en route to a 6-2 win over Japan at the 2012 Japan Four Nations Tournament on Wednesday.

The Canadians moved to 2-0 ahead of Thursday’s preliminary round finale against Norway (1 a.m. ET/10 p.m. PT), which bounced back from a 3-2 loss to the Japanese on Tuesday to beat Korea 3-1 in Wednesday’s early game at Big Hat Arena.

With Billy Bridges (Summerside, P.E.I.) in the penalty box to start the second period, Westlake snapped a scoreless tie with his shorthanded marker, and after Mamoru Yoshikawa briefly tied the game for Japan, goals from Adam Dixon (Midland, Ont.), Marc Dorion (Bourget, Ont.) and Anthony Gale (Brampton, Ont.) in a span of 5:46 gave the Canadians a commanding three-goal advantage heading to the intermission.

The Japanese cut the lead to two early in the third period, but Westlake added his second of the game and Kevin Rempel (Vineland, Ont.) scored a power play goal with just over three minutes to go to round out the scoring.

Westlake finished with two goals and an assist, while Dixon added a goal and a helper and Bridges chipped in with two assists.

Corbin Watson (Kingsville, Ont.) made 16 saves for the win in his first start of the tournament as the two teams finished even in shots on goal, 18-18.

Goals/Buts : 
None/Aucun

Penalties/Pénalités : 
07:55 CAN Greg Westlake (Interference/Obstruction)
10:58 CAN Dominic Larocque (Roughing/Rudesse)
11:03 JPN Yoshihiro Shioya (Misconduct/Inconduite)
12:30 JPN Mamoru Yoshikawa (Hooking/Accrocher)
14:55 CAN Billy Bridges (Cross-checking/Double-échec)

Goals/Buts : 
00:46 CAN Greg Westlake SH/DN
06:04 JPN Mamoru Yoshikawa (Takayuki Endo, Daisuke Uehara)
07:30 CAN Adam Dixon (Greg Westlake, Scott Karrasch)
11:51 CAN Marc Dorion (Billy Bridges)
13:16 CAN Anthony Gale

Penalties/Pénalités : 
04:02 CAN Graeme Murray (Holding/Retenir)

Goals/Buts : 
01:47 JPN Kazuhiro Takahashi (Mamoru Yoshikawa)
06:26 CAN Greg Westlake (Brad Bowden)
11:57 CAN Kevin Rempel (Billy Bridges, Adam Dixon) PP/AN

Penalties/Pénalités : 
11:24 JPN Kazuhiro Takahashi (Delay of Game/Retarder le match)