It is a crying shame if this is the end of team North America’s run at the World Cup, yet nearly fitting that a team whose product turned out even more exciting than advertised could end on such a thrilling play involving one of the league’s young stars.
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Team North America caught Group B favorites Sweden off guard with an explosive start before securing a thrilling 4-3 overtime win at the World Cup of Hockey on Wednesday to keep alive their hopes of reaching the semi-finals.
The breathaking 3-on-3 period went to the other end and Gaudreau found MacKinnon all alone in front of Lundqvist. If they want to advance to the next stage of the World Cup of Hockey, they need to do the near impossible: beat Sweden on September 21.
It was Big Boy Hockey at its finest, a high-speed chess match between the upstart and the reigning Olympic silver medalists, an afternoon featuring mind-warping speed and even a penalty shot.
Despite the win by Team North America (2-1), Russian Federation (1-1) holds the tiebreaker over the youngsters and will earn the other semifinal berth if it beats Finland (0-2) Thursday to close out Group B play. That’s a silver lining for the USA after flaming out of the World Cup with a roster that underperformed expectations.
Notes: Goaltender Matt Murray (thumb) said he was ready to play after participating in Tuesday’s practice, but McLellan went with Gibson in net and Connor Hellebuyck as back up.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have celly’d that hard”. A lot of action for a Swedish team who likes to play very structured and does not give up a lot of chances and goals.
The hybrid collection of Canadian and American players 23 and younger lived to see another day with a pulsating 4-3 victory over Sweden at the Air Canada Centre. “But I think that we’re confident in the way that we can play a track meet kind of game and get by”, said North American and Maple Leafs’ defenceman Morgan Rielly. Any kind of win by Team Finland will do it.
MacKinnon has re-emerged as one of the great young players in the game. The Canucks are the only team in the tournament yet to lose a game, finishing the pool stage with a ideal three-and-oh record. We entertained and we’d like a chance to continue that.
I’d like to be naïve and argue that perhaps there’s room for both – high-octane hockey like the kids are playing, mixed in with Team Canada’s surgical brilliance – but I think the evidence in the NHL nowadays suggests otherwise. The Finns will be very proud. “They’re playing loose and they’re not anxious about a thing. I think we’ve definitely turned some heads and opened the eyes of everyone what the future of the National Hockey League is like”.
Auston Matthews, Vincent Trocheck and Johnny Gaudreau also scored for North America (2-1-0).
Canadians still talk about the unbelievably talented 1987 Canada Cup team and not a hockey season goes by that we don’t, at some point, see a replay of that iconic Lemieux-to-Gretzky-back-to-Lemieux game-winner from that tournament.
Erik Karlsson likened Team North America’s start to getting “slapped in the face”. McDavid made a brilliant rush but was stopped by Lundqvist. “Those first two minutes there was probably the most embarrassing part that I’ve ever been a part of on a team”. If you survey 99 out of 100 fans, they’d say, ‘Put them in again.’ Those are all real positives.
Hey yo, I was once a kid with the other little kids / Now I’m ripping up shows, and them fans going wild with us / Tell Mommy I’m sorry / This life is a party.
Karlsson said the message on the bench was to “wake the bleep up”.
Social distortion: Team Sweden and Hawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson have a love-hate relationship with social media.
Those players were instead part of Team North America, which was quick, skilled and easily one of the most exciting teams in the tournament.
Imagine what it was like being head coach North America head coach Todd McLellan during that OT session.
And they went out with a flare. “We did what we came to do and we’re moving on to the semis”.
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“I think we definitely have turned some heads”, McDavid said”.
