Canada’s Connor Bedard, second from right, celebrates with teammates following his goal during second period IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship pre-tournament hockey action against Finland in Halifax on Dec. 23.Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
After a couple easy tune-up tests, Canada had to battle from start to finish on Friday night to defeat Finland 5-3 in the final exhibition game ahead of the world junior men’s hockey championship.
Canada, which beat Switzerland 6-0 on Monday, and Slovakia 6-1 on Wednesday, needed a power-play goal from Connor Bedard at 14:21 to post the victory. It was Bedard’s second power-play goal of the game. Logan Stankoven iced the game with an empty-net goal at 19:46.
Brennan Othmann and Brandt Clarke also scored for Canada.
Finland, which held 1-0 and 2-1 leads, got goals from Niko Huuhtanen, Ville Koivunen and Joakim Kemell.
Finland, which lost 5-2 to the United States on Monday, was outshot by Canada 45-22. Canada was 3-for-7 on the power play, while Finland went 2-for-4.
Canada opens defence of its world title on Boxing Day with a preliminary round game against Czechia in Halifax.
Finland, which lost 3-2 in overtime to Canada in the memorable gold-medal final of the delayed worlds this past summer, opens its tournament on Boxing Day with a game against Switzerland in Moncton, N.B.
This content appears as provided to The Globe by the originating wire service. It has not been edited by Globe staff.