After all that, the kids thought they had advanced to the semi-finals.
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But they were instead part of Team North America, which exemplified what hockey should be about. “We were talking, maybe we shouldn’t have (celebrated) that hard”. But Sweden got the point it needed to advance to the semifinals, while North America needs Finland to beat Russian Federation on Thursday. Johnny Gaudreau, who made the pass to MacKinnon, found out when he returned to the locker room and found downcast faces. “Go!’ It was just going back and forth, the energy in the building and the passion with the fans, the players…” “We knew that getting into the situation we ended in we would still need help”. “It got us going”. In the third period at 6:50 Patrik Berglund tied the game at three with a classic high slot tip off of an Erik Karlsson shot, which earned Carl Soderberg an assist as well. The most risky guys – McDavid, Auston Matthews, Gaudreau, etc. – weren’t left out there for extra-long shifts at the end. North America’s Johnny Gaudreau scores past Sweden’s goalie Henrik Lundqvist during the first period of a World Cup of Hockey game in Toronto, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016.
The problem with that is twofold. The risk was not absolute.
The OT victor impressed a few National Hockey League players as well. What looks like the least conservative collection of great talent we’ve seen in generations might have been undone by a little too much conservatism. “Their blueline is very strong and they have a veteran goaltender who can win games on his own”. In addition, Gaudreau had four shots on goal and was a scoring threat virtually every time he had the puck.
This experiment – this “gimmick” – not only defeated two stout national teams from established hockey nations Sweden and Finland, it gave us some of the best hockey we have seen since the days when Northlands Coliseum had the best ice, and the best team, in the league. On the Swedish bench, one thought was in everyone’s mind. They did it all.
TORONTO (AP) – The United States scored two goals in two World Cup of Hockey games before being eliminated.
Five minutes later, Gaudreau scored a beauty, again on a breakaway. Against what may be the world’s greatest defensive corps, North America made the game look like an amusement park. In overtime, Nathan MacKinnon scored the game-winning goal after ridiculous saves from both goalies. They’re fresh, no salary cap, all skill and guts.
It was the best on-ice moment of the World Cup of Hockey yet.
“At that point it doesn’t matter how or what you do”, said Gibson.
“I realized he was by himself”.
“I was just kind of juggling the puck and I saw him trying to pokecheck me so I knew I had to toe drag him”.
“Dave Tippett has coached probably more games than probably the rest of our staff put together, and we have coaches that have been around for a while, but we became fans”, said McLellan.
“I was pretty exhausted”, MacKinnon said.
“We’ve definitely turned some heads and opened the eyes of everyone what the future of the National Hockey League is like”. “It’s definitely a lot of fun playing like this with a lot of speed”.
“I thought that we could be unsafe. I’m not sure we’ll be able to play quite the same way, but that would sure be nice”. “We finished first in our group and we move on, so we’re happy”.
Except they weren’t. Not all the way.
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It’s the opposite for North America, which went from euphoria to uncertainty.
