Photo By - Imagn Images. Canada's Tij Iginla after scoring a goal.
Team Canada and Team Finland will hit the ice for the Bronze Medal Game of the World Junior Hockey Championship at the Grand Casino Arena on Monday, January 5.
While both teams had higher pre-tournament expectations, the opportunity to medal remains, and my top Canada vs. Finland predictions and betting picks are calling for a high-scoring game between the two hockey powerhouses this afternoon.
My best bet: Canada team total Over 4.5 (+130 at Bet99)
The Canadians scored seven times against the Finns in the round robin and have four or more goals in five of six games this tournament. Team Canada paces the tournament with six goals per game and has 10 different skaters averaging one or more.
Canada have also been a force with the man advantage and sports a tournament-high 50.0% power play. The Finns have the most penalty minutes per game (10:30) of the four remaining teams, too.
Finland have also allowed 14 goals across the past three games with a ho-hum .872 team save percentage. The three opponents were the Canadians, Americans, and Swedes, so it reinforces that the Finns have their hands full against the best of the best.
Finally, the Canadians also had an abundance of high-danger scoring chances against the Czechs that didn’t find the back of the net Sunday, so I expect more of those quality opportunities to result in goals this afternoon.
I expect the Canadians to pull away from the Finns and score enough goals to send this total Over the number.
Canada might also have a bit of a goalie dilemma.
Jack Ivankovic wasn’t sharp in the semis, and Carter George has struggled all tournament with an .844 SV% and 3.33 GAA.
If Ivankovic starts, and the Finns roll out Petteri Rimpinen again, both netminders will also be playing for the second consecutive night. There’s a reason that rarely happens at the highest level.
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Neil Parker is, first and foremost, a sports fan. A huge supporter of the Cowboys, Cubs, and Maple Leafs, he has managed to parlay his passion into writing gigs at some of the top websites in the industry.
Neil takes a numbers-based approach to his handicapping and complements his in-depth statistical analysis with a keen eye on the markets to provide the best available odds. He loves to lean on his rolodex of idioms to offset his inner nerd. When it comes to wagering, he throws down on anything that catches his eye at bet365, Betway and BetVictor. He also keeps a close eye on CoolBet because the polar bear brand often has outlier NHL and NFL moneyline prices.
Neil graduated with honors from St. Thomas University in 2007 before completing his BEd at Acadia University in 2010. After teaching a myriad of courses and subjects, he found a groove delivering fun lessons to exceptional learners in non-traditional classroom environments. If his decade-plus teaching run taught him anything about sports betting, it’s to stay the course and use the summer – or offseason – to refresh and prepare to be better in the year to come.
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