Best Player Team Canada: Joseph Curtis.

The best two teams at this year's Spengler Cup played against each other and showed an exciting match. Canada and Ufa won their first two matches and especially Salavat Yulaev was performing in an impressive way by scoring 11 goals in two matches. Today's circumstances were different, this wasn't just an ice-hockey match between Team Canada and Salavat Yulaev, this was a match between two big rivals; Canada and Russia.

From the start of this match it was obvious that the players are not on the ice to play a friendly match. In the early minutes of the game both teams were getting a lot of penalties, especially the Russians. It seemed that they were a bit surprised about the engagement and toughness of Team Canada. Although the fact that the Canadians were quicker on the ice Ufa took the lead after 13 minutes, Kuteykin made it 1:0. But the Canadians weren't nervous about this lead, just a minute later they levelled the result when Sarault scored. Another minute later Team Canada took even the lead; Gamacha
was deflecting a shot in front of the goal for the 2:1 lead of his team. Both goals were scored in a power-play situation.

In the second period the Russians were getting back on track and put keeper Jospeh in several occasions under pressure. The Canadians lost a bit concentration and this resulted in a lot of penalties. In one of these power-plays Salavat could level the result; Tverdovskiy scored the second goal for the Russians today. After this goal Salavat was trying to take the lead but Joseph was performing well and he saved his team in several cases. With this draw both teams took their break.

In the last third both teams were trying to score and this made the match very exciting for the audience. The puck flew from one goal to the other and it was just a question of time when one of both would score. Team Canada did it. In the 47th minute after a rush of McTavish Russian defender Antipov was trying to save in front of Green, but his save resulted in a own goal. The last third showed how well organized and disciplined the Canadians played. Salavat Yulaeav wasn't able to level the result even as they took keeper Eremenko off the ice and played with 6 versus 4 players. The match ended with a victory of Team Canada.

This victory was a little bit surprising if we keep in mind how outstanding Salava Yulaev Ufa played yesterday against German Adler Mannheim. Maybe this match will be repeated on Monday when the final is going to take place.