Two years ago, under the pressures of playing at home, Russian Federation lost 3-1 to Finland in the quarter-finals and finished the tournament a disappointing fifth.
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An Air Canada Centre crowd filled primarily by fans in red and white erupted. You don’t want to get down a goal, even though we have done that so far in this tournament and have come back.
Hosting Russia in Saturday’s semifinal of the World Cup of Hockey, Canada is now something of a powerhouse.
Russian Federation meanwhile lost 2-1 to Sweden to open the round robin, barely edged Team North America 4-3 and needed the victory over Finland to advance to the semi-final.
“Any time you play in a game of that magnitude and win it’s an incredible feeling”, said Marchand.
“We come up short, but I think some guys gave some really true efforts”.
Ovechkin and his longtime rival have met many times in the playoffs or on the global stage, and Crosby has gotten the better of the Washington Capitals captain most times.
Combine the star power of Canada along with the superior coaching of Mike Babcock and the goaltending of Carey Price, and it would be a shocker if the Canadians did not win the tournament.
Canada has yet to lose in best-on-best action since the preliminary round of the 2010 Olympics, a stretch of more than six years. The World Cup, unique hybrid as it is with the inclusion of both the Under-24 Team North America and the amalgamated Team Europe, could represent the pinnacle of worldwide hockey competition for the next decade.
This is also the latest chapter in the Crosby and Ovechkin rivalry with past bragging rights, between the two most dynamic players in hockey, going to Crosby based on a pair of Stanley Cup championships and two Olympic gold medals. Indeed, Russia-Canada can set pulses racing and stir emotions in those hockey-mad nations that for decades have watched their teams wage war on the ice for global supremacy of the sport. “We have a lot of respect for them and what they can do with the puck”.
Up 4-2 in the championship game after two periods, the hosts surrendered goals to Alexei Tereshchenko and Ilya Kovalchuk in the final 20 minutes.
“I think this is one of the greatest rivalries ever: Canada against Russia”, Tarasenko said.
Canada and Russian Federation renew hostilities at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night as both teams look to advance to the gold medal game at the World Cup of Hockey.
“There’s so much off ice immeasurable intrinsic value to having him as a captain that it’s hard for me to summarize it in words”, Team Europe coach Ralph Krueger said earlier in the World Cup. I believe he’s played against men in the past, so you can see he’s a little bit stronger and a little more advanced in that regard.
Part of Russia’s success at the tournament thus far has been the play of goaltender Sergei Bobrovski.
“When you’ve got a hot goalie, you’ve got to go after him and get to that net, get in front of him, make sure he can’t see that puck”, said Canadian forward Ryan Getzlaf. “But when you look in the room and go over the team, there’s not a lot of players better than (Anze) Kopitar in this tournament”.
Getting nearly skated out of the rink by Canada wasn’t entirely unexpected, but players acknowledged their recipe to move on was to beat Europe and the Czech Republic.
Sidney Crosby opened scoring for Canada in the first period after a rough turnover by Russia’s defence.
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Team Europe will play Sweden in the other semifinal Sunday. “They have a really good team, good players, best players in the world so we need to be good”.
