“I think we played the way we needed to”, said Murray, who lost his shutout bid late in the third period. “He’s a special player and it’s exciting to see him grow already each and every game”.
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Captain Connor McDavid, the 2015 No. 1 pick of the Edmonton Oilers, also had an assist and several nifty moves that confounded Finnish defenders.
“I feel like we’re the underdog in most games, we’re so unknown”.
Matt Murray turned back 24 shots and blanked Finland until Valtteri Filppula beat him with 4:07 left.
“The second period was a cold shower for us”, Marjamaki said. That lapse was something McLellan said is a good teaching moment for his team that will help as the World Cup goes on.
Russian Federation is up next Monday night after a 2-1 loss to Sweden earlier Sunday. Russian Federation is built on the strength of their offense led by Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Vladimir Tarasenko but it was their defense and goaltending that played well yesterday and if they’re going to get a victory against North America here they are going to have to find a way to generate some offense as that is their opponent’s strength for sure.
“Russia’s a hockey giant and they’re one of the best hockey nations in the world”, McDavid said. “As we built the team, we didn’t know whether he was going to be a part of it”.
DESPERATION MODE: Team USA coach John Tortorella called Sunday a “day of digestion”, his players trying to stomach their stunning 3-0 loss to Europe a day earlier in the tournament opener. Fifteen of the 18 skaters had at least one shot on goal. “You don’t really know what to expect (at the tournament)”. He was facing the wrong way to catch the deflection, but the Calgary Flames forward leaped to turn his body and get his stick on the puck.
Gabriel Landeskog and Victor Hedman scored second-period goals for the Swedes. Red Wings defenseman Alexey Marchenko had just one shot on goal in 18:31. “I think it showed”, Matthews said.
Moments later, Tarasenko hit Markstrom in the mask with a shot that the Vancouver goalie was able to shake off. He was the player who finally got McDavid, who had gone three exhibition games without a point, back on the scoresheet.
Swedish coach Rikard Gronberg was pleased with the way the team executed the prepared game plan following a 6-2 loss to Team Europe in pretournament competition Wednesday. And that didn’t merely translate to an end-to-end game, though they certainly took the puck up the ice with noticeable alacrity-it showed up in the way they pounced on loose pucks, and darted through the Finnish coverage.
“We stuck to our game plan, kept the puck away from Rinne, put it behind their defensemen and used our speed”, Eichel said.
Armanti Edwards (five-yard run) had the other touchdown for the Roughriders, who got one field goal and one convert from Tyler Crapigna, two singles from Josh Bartel and a conceded safety to stop their losing streak at seven games and improve their West Division record to 2-10.
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North America has to turn right around and play Russia Monday night.
