The United States (2-1) fell to Canada (3-0) in the final round-robin game of the 2007 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship on Wednesday evening, in front of 3,700 fans at Halifax Metro Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. With the game tightly contested, tied 3-3 after one quarter, the Canadians used a six-goal run in the second quarter to take command of the game and finish with an 18-5 victory.

"There's a lot we need to work on," said U.S. coach Tom Ryan. "We didn't play our best for a full 60 minutes. We're capable of playing a much better game."

The U.S. team came out playing with energy and intensity, as Matt Zash (New York Titans) scored the first goal of the game at 1:31. Shawn Williams (Rochester Knighthawks) scored off of a nice feed from Gavin Prout (Colorado Mammoth), and Scott Self (Arizona Sting) followed with a goal to give Canada a 2-1 lead.

Scott Stapleford (Portland LumberJax) answered back for the USA as the shot clock was winding down to tie the game at two goals. Nenad Gajic (Colorado Mammoth) scored a cross-crease goal minutes later, but Pat Dutton (Rochester Knighthawks) tied the game again, faking left and driving right to beat defender Scott Self. Then the floodgates opened.

Despite the U.S. holding Canada's power-play scoreless (0/3) in the quarter, the Canadian offense, which features six of the top seven scorers in the National Lacrosse League, played to form in the second quarter. John Grant (Rochester Knighthawks) and Dan Dawson (Arizona Sting), who led their respective NLL teams to the Champion's Cup Final this season, scored back-to-back goals. Gavin Prout (Colorado Mammoth) followed it with a transition goal on a 3-on-2 break, and John Tavares (Buffalo Bandits) shuffled around the U.S. defense to score. Dawson and Tavares would score again to end the half, putting Canada up 9-3 at the half.

U.S. goaltenders Erik Miller (24 saves, 13 goals against in 45:00) and JJ Pearl (12 saves, 5 goals against in 15:00) played excellent in goal under constant fire from Canada.

"Both our goalies played strong," said coach Ryan. "We gave up too many high-quality shots. We need to do a better job defensively and limit their opportunities."

Pat Dutton (1 goal, 2 assists), Keevin Galbraith (1 goal, 2 assists), Matt Zash (1 goal, 1 assist) and Scott Stapleford (1 goal) and Matt Alrich (1 goal) each scored for the United States.

The United States will meet the Iroquois Nationals in Saturday's semifinal, should they defeat Scotland on Friday in the quarterfinal round.

The gold and bronze medal games are on Sunday.