The Men's World Floorball Championship (WFC) in Finland got off to an electrifying start as Singapore and Canada played out a 17-goal thriller in Helsinki yesterday.
Despite a comeback in the third period that saw world No. 16 Singapore overcome a three-goal deficit to draw level at 7-7, it was world No. 11 Canada who prevailed 9-8 in the Group D clash.
Singapore started strongly, taking a 3-2 lead in the first period, thanks to goals from captain R. Suria, Jenmark Sorreda and Abdul Mateen Amir Mizra.
But Canada quickly found their feet and controlled the game in the second period against a subdued Singapore.
Even though Canadian forward Alexandre Dupont was shown a red card for elbowing Singapore's Nicholas Low in the 35th minute, it had little effect on them.
They finished the second period 5-3 up with goals from Lauri Berg, Cameron Buck and Valtteri Viitakoski.
Canada continued to dominate early in the third period and took a 7-4 lead by the 47th minute.
But Singapore bravely clawed back to 7-7 in the span of three minutes.
Suria and Sorreda added their third and second goals of the game respectively before Lee Chee Yong tapped in from close range to bring Singapore level.
But seconds after that, Viitakoski scored his fourth goal of the match to put Canada at 8-7.
Forward Lim Jian Hong missed the chance to equalise for Singapore when he failed to convert his penalty shot in the 53rd minute.
Cedric Grenapin then added one more to make it 9-7 for Canada.
Lee scored another three minutes from time to close the gap but it was not enough as the North Americans hung on for full points.
Suria, 29, who was named Singapore's Player of the Match, said: "We played really well in defence, however, we did not take our chances in offence. We fought till the last second but it was not in favour of us.
"I feel that we gave them a good fight and did not let them take the easy win.
"All of us played our hearts out to get the draw but unfortunately we could not."
This is the Singapore men's first international competition since the 2019 SEA Games, where they won the silver medal.
In the remaining Group D fixtures, they will face the Philippines (world No. 35) tomorrow, before taking on Estonia (10th) on Monday.
