Team Canada's Sam Reinhart, centre, is congratulated by teammates Anthony Duclair, left, and Max Domi after scoting past Team Finland goaltender Juuse Saros during first period preliminary round hockey action at the IIHF World Junior Championship Monday, December 29, 2014 in Montreal.The Canadian Press
Some knots are tougher to undo than others, and when Team Canada winger Max Domi fell near the corner boards with Finland defenceman Julius Honka there was no obvious solution to the entanglement.
The incident happened about 13 minutes into the second period of the World Junior Championships preliminary round tilt opposing the countries.
"I think I fell, I've been falling a lot," Domi laughed afterward.
With a referee looking on and the crowd howling for a penalty – Domi was the one on the ice – the two players fumbled around for 10 or 12 seconds.
"We were both like 'okay, what we do, how do we get up here', and we'd move and somehow still be locked up," Domi said.
When he finally did get to his feet, he laboured past the blueline toward the bench – and then the puck arrived from teammate Dillon Heatherington.
Domi quickly wheeled back into the Finland zone, sent a gorgeous saucer pass skittering across the ice to Anthony Duclair (who had initially noodled around with the puck waiting for Domi to get to his feet), who in turn sent a hard pass to a charging Sam Reinhart, who tipped it home to give Canada a 2-0 lead.
"That's Max Domi," said coach Benoit Groulx. "He's down in the corner and like we have the puck, and he's under their guy, how is going to get out of the zone, it's time to change (lines), and all of a sudden he's out of the zone, he's seems to have his second wind, gets the puck, get in the zone, then bing, bang, tic-tac-toe the puck is in the net. Broken play, and we end up with a goal on that because of his second effort, because of Sam Reinhart driving the net, because of the skills and the poise of Anthony Duclair. It was an important goal."
It was one of two sequences that neatly summarize the encounter between Canada's national junior team and Finland, both involving Honka, a highly-touted Dallas Stars prospect.
In the first period, the under-sized but fiery Honka took a healthy run at beefy Canadian winger Nick Ritchie as he trundled down the left-side boards. Finn bounced off, Canadian carried on.
While the final scoreline, 4-1, suggests Canada won comfortably, the detailed picture is somewhat more complicated.
Sure, Reinhart opened the scoring on the power-play just over five minutes into the game – a crafty tip of a point shot that he batted in after the puck came back off the goalpost – but the defending-champion Finns gave the host nation all they could handle.
When Montreal Canadiens prospect Artturi Lehkonen grabbed a misplayed puck from defenceman Samuel Morin late in the second and beat fellow Habs draftee Zachary Fucale, the Finns were within a goal and in the ascendancy.
Although to be fair, they had opened the offensive taps early in the game, Fucale was called upon to save a partial breakaway by Roope Hintz in the opening couple of minutes.
"It helped me get comfortable," Fucale said after the game.
He was standing in the mixed zone just a few feet away from Lehkonen, the two shared a knowing look and a laugh when a reporter asked the rangy goalie if he knew the Finnish captain
In the third, Domi stepped to the fore again, jumping out from behind the net to fire a puck off the post to Juuse Saros's right, Duclair was on hand to pop it home.
Curtis Lazar, the Canadian captain, slid headlong to poke a loose puck past Saros to make it 4-1 on a late power-play, it was a rare occasion where Domi wasn't involved.
"A little Superman action," Lazar beamed afterward.
Finland won this competition a year ago – beating Canada 5-1 in the semifinals – and the rematch was always going to be a test.
The Finns would close the gap to within a goal in the second after a Samuel Morin whiffed pass allowed Montreal Canadiens prospect Artturi Lehkonen to walk in on Fucale and slam home his own rebound.
Team Canada had allowed just 29 shots in their first two games of the tournament, the Finns fell one short of that on Tuesday night.
Crucially, Canada recorded 36, and has now outscored the opposition 16-1 through three preliminary round games. The Canadians have also scored on exactly half of their 10 power-plays (they have yet to give up a short-handed goal in 11 chances).
Goaltenders Fucale and Eric Comrie have given up just one goal between them in three games, Groulx was noncommittal as to his choice for the New Year's Eve game against the U.S. that promises to be Canada's toughest game yet.
Fucale turned in a steady performance – although he wasn't thrilled about the goal – and also mentioned that he took a shot off his mask at one point and that "there was a burning smell. Don't laugh, it happens."
A few singed hairs notwithstanding, he might justly feel aggrieved to not start the next game.
The game against the Americans will inevitably be billed as Jack vs. Mac (as in Jack Eichel and Connor McDavid, the consensus top two prospects for the 2015 NHL draft), but there are bigger stakes involved.
The winning team will finish atop pool A and have an easier path to the semi-finals.
"They have great forwards. They skate, they move the puck. But we have that too," Groulx said. "I'm anxious to see how it plays out, when you look at it on paper . . . there are a lot of elements to suggest a pretty good hockey game."