Canada 3-5 Ireland
Ireland are in the driving seat in their bid to secure a place at Tokyo 2020 after a topsy-turvy 5-3 victory over Canada in an entertaining first leg of the sides' Olympic hockey play-off in Vancouver on Saturday night.
Ireland took the lead but trailed 2-1 at half-time before hitting their stride after the restart as Sean Murray and Shane O'Donoghue both finished with two goals apiece.
The visitors started well and struck first through Chris Cargo after eight minutes. Matthew Nelson won possession and fed Cargo for a composed finish.
Canada hit back, however, as Gordon Johnston and Keegan Pereira both scored from penalty corners to give the hosts a 2-1 lead going into the break.
The Green Machine had been the better side in the first two quarters, even if that wasn't reflected on the scoreboard, but they started to make their possession count after the half-time break.
On 32 minutes, O'Donoghue met a penalty corner with a perfect drag shot into the top corner to level it up.
Sean Murray put Ireland ahead 10 minutes later after Canada goalkeeper Antoni Kindler rushed off his line and left the net unguarded.
David Fitzgerald, in for the injured David Harte, made a couple of excellent saves but couldn't keep out a superb shot from Pereira, who somehow managed to make room for himself in the scoring circle.
In the final quarter though, Ireland really hit their stride. First, Murray lunged to give them the lead with his second before O'Donoghue bagged his double, again from a penalty corner.
Ireland had to play the last five minutes a man down when Tim Cross was yellow carded for a barge but it ended 5-3, giving Ireland a two-goal advantage to take into Sunday's decisive second leg, which will go straight to a penalty shootout if the sides are level on aggregate after 60 minutes.
Watch Canada v Ireland live on RTÉ News Now and RTÉ Player from 9pm on Sunday
