Wowed by the theatrics, the fans in Toronto later chanted Matthews’ name in unison. Gaudreau shoots it high and wide. Gaudreau would make up for his earlier miss, freezing Lundqvist with a attractive forehand-backhand move. Although the North Americans have stolen the hearts of the Canadian and American nations with their speed and impressive young talent, the team could easily be eliminated from the tournament tonight. But Sweden was able to hang on, in large part thanks to Lundqvist. Corey Crawford stopped 18 of 19 shots for Canada, and Jaroslav Halak stopped 42 of 46 for the Europeans, who will play Sweden on Sunday in the second semi.
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Sweden eventually came back to force the overtime, setting the stage for MacKinnon’s heroics. That would have tied the game. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY SportsThe third period followed the same flow as the second, the Fins on the attack, while Sweden relied on Lundqvist to bail them out.
Fortunately for the Lundqvist, Sweden has already advanced to the semifinals so there could be more opportunities for Lundqvist to exercise his overtime demons and once again bring glory back to his home country as he has in past worldwide tournaments like the Olympics.
The Swedes battled back, wiping out a pair of two-goal deficits and riding 45 saves in net from Henrik Lundqvist, who is called The King for a reason.
Then, not to be outdone, John Gibson made an incredible save of his own with just over a minute to go in overtime.
Nathan MacKinnon delivered the game-winner with 49 seconds left in overtime, with assists going to the risky Gaudreau and Shayne Gostisbehere.
“We knew that winning would do wonders for us”, said North America coach Todd McLellan.
In the meantime, North America must now await the outcome of Thursday’s Russian Federation vs. Finland game needing Russian Federation to suffer the loss in that contest. Could they do it night in, night out if you’re playing against them and watching ’em and breaking them down?
And Team Canada rolled to another victory. By the end of the second period, they’d exchanged 64 shots.
Despite the turnover, Halak was the only reason the game was as close as it was, making 42 saves on the night in the opening frame.
Logan Couture made it 4-1 with 2:27 left in the third during a four-on-four session.
That save sparked the rush that would lead to what could only be described as the filthiest goal of the tournament and it came off the stick of Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon.
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. Would the players for these teams really care?
Scratched in Europe’s 4-1 loss to Canada. Gaudreau made it 3-1 on a breakaway before Backstrom closed out the first-period scoring.
Team North America, a mix of U.S. and Canadian players 23 and younger, scored two goals in the opening 95 seconds but Sweden twice erased two-goal deficits to force overtime.
“Which would you rather watch?”‘ Team Canada head coach Mike Babcock asked, interrupting my long-winded question after his team’s 4-1 win over Europe, knowing very well where I was headed with this.
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Forsberg got on the board with Sweden’s fifth shot of the game at 8:24 when he walked over North America’s blue line and fired a harmless looking wrist shot that beat Gibson between his blocking arm and body. Finland, now winless in the tournament, looks to play spoiler to the Russians, with ambitions of finishing the tournament with a win.
