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HALIFAX — Team Canada is on the move at the IIHF World Hockey Championship.
Derek Roy scored three goals and added an assist Wednesday as the Canadians beat Norway 8-2 to book a spot in a semifinal game to be played in Quebec City.
Canada will face Sweden for the second straight year in Friday's semi-final after the Swedes pulled out a 3-2 overtime win over the Czech Republic in their quarter-final match.
The Canadians should have all kinds of momentum after winning for a 16th straight time at this event, even though the game with Norway was a little tighter than most expected it to be early on.
Canada's Dany Heatley celebrates his goal with Ryan Getzlaf during the first period. (Paul Darrow/Reuters)
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Rick Nash, with two, Dany Heatley, Ryan Getzlaf and Jonathan Toews also had goals for Canada.
Morten Ask and Mathis Olimb replied for the Norwegians, who were making a quarter-final appearance for the first time ever at this level.
There was no one more nervous in the Metro Centre than the man in charge of travel plans for the Canadian team. The players and their families had their bags packed but weren't totally sure whether they'd be boarding a scheduled evening flight to Quebec because a loss would have sent everyone home for the summer.
The Canadians sprung to life with the score tied 2-2 in the second period. Toews beat goalie Pal Grotnes with a hard wrist shot on the power play at 9:57 before Roy scored goals 2:42 apart to give Canada a 5-2 lead before the second intermission.
That took take any chance of an unlikely upset out of the equation. Give the Norwegians credit, though — defenceman Anders Myrvold had spoken of the team's “Viking blood” and they showed plenty of toughness and fight in this one.
The victory was especially important to the Canadian players because it will allow Eric Staal to rejoin the team. He missed Wednesday's game while attending a funeral for his grandfather in Thunder Bay, Ont., and will meet back up with his teammates on Thursday.
His absence opened up a spot for 18-year-old Sam Gagner but he only ended up seeing a couple of shifts in the third period after Nash had scored twice to make it 7-2. Roy completed the hat trick with the team's final goal of the night.
Cam Ward was given the start as Canadian coach Ken Hitchcock continued to alternate his netminders. Ward is now 9-0 in his world championship career.
Canada scored on the opening shift for the second consecutive game. Heatley picked up a turnover in the neutral zone and came down the left wing before beating goalie Pal Grotnes from a sharp angle at 37 seconds.
That gave him 10 goals for the tournament — one more than the entire Norwegian team at that point.
It looked like it might get ugly but Canada soon found itself in penalty trouble. Brent Burns and Shane Doan were each sitting in the box when Ask tied the game at 7:51. He roofed one high over Ward's glove after the Norwegians had worked the puck around nicely with the 5-on-3 advantage.
Getzlaf restored the lead after Canada had been given an extended 5-on-3 advantage of his own. He scored his second goal of the tournament at 11:02 after Grotnes had turned aside a couple shots.
The Norwegians continued to play tight and again tied the game at 5:32 of the second period. Olimb beat Ward high to the glove side to briefly silence the crowd.
That didn't last and Canada earned a spot in the semifinals for the sixth straight year. This is starting to look like another march to gold and the sellout Metro Centre crowd of 9,192 let the players know it by letting out a loud ovation as time ticked away.
The next stop is Quebec City.
