Canada Not Shockingly Moves to World Cup Final

In a Cinderalla story defying all odds, Canada is in the World Cup Final. No one could have ever predicted this... unless of course, you follow hockey and have somewhat of an idea as to what country has the most players in the NHL.

They beat Russia in the semifinal game tonight by a score of 5 to 3. It was tied at 2 after two periods, and then Canada decided in their native home land to go hard on Mother Russia in the final session of play, going up 5-2 before Russia got a garbage time goal in the final few seconds to make things respectable.

HOW EXACTLY DID IT GO DOWN YOU ASK? Well, stop shouting, but Sidney Crosby opened things up for Canada with an unassisted goal in the first period. Nikita Kucherov tied it in the second with the generous help of Nikita Zaitsev and Evgeni Malkin. Russis then actually took the lead off a goal from Evgeny Kuznetsov which was assisted by Ivan Telegin and Evgeny Dadonov. (QUICK SIDENOTE: Does every Russian name their sons either Evgeny or Nikita?) After that goal, Canada took control. Brad Marchand scored twice to re-tie the game and then take the lead. Corey Perry added a fourth, and John Tavares put a bow on the Canadian scoring with a fifth before Artemi Panarin got the meaningless goal for Russia.

Matt Duchene played for just 7:51, further proving Mike Babcock has it in for the Avalanche. Had Duchene played more, Canada would have won 8-3 based off a Duchene hat trick. I'm sure of it. Semyon Varlamov was once again on the bench as Sergei Bobrovsky got another start. Had he played, Russia would have won. I'm sure of it. "Well, what if Duchene played 8 minutes or more and Varlamov was in goal for Russia? What would have happened then?" My dear friend, magic would have happened. And that's all I have to say about that.

Canada will play the winner of Sweden and Europe in a best of 3 final, with the second semifinal game coming tomorrow afternoon.