Toews is now 45-1-1 with Team Canada since 2006, including Saturday’s 5-3 win over Russian Federation that secured the Canadians a spot in the World Cup of Hockey final.
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Net result: Bobrovsky was dominant all night, making 16 saves in the first period and 15 more in the second.
Russian Federation turned the match on its head as Nikita Kucherov and Evgeni Kuznetsov struck in the second period to silence the home crowd, but a superb steal and pass to Brad Marchand by Crosby allowed the former to steer home an equaliser.
The team in front of him isn’t getting outplayed to the same degree that the 2010 Canadiens were in those playoffs, but Halak has still been his team’s best player and the biggest factor in its current success.
“They can hold the fort for a long period of time”, Babcock said. Canada equalised just seconds later, but it was game on.
Some critics thought it was a joke to put a team together with players from eight nations instead of picking two of them, perhaps Slovakia and Switzerland, to round out the eight-team tournament.
Canada really took it to the Russians in this game, and it would have been a laugher if not for those two opportunistic goals, and the play of Bobrovsky.
“It’s a little bit of happiness with what we have done so far”, defenceman Zdeno Chara said. And not even late in the third period of Sunday’s semifinal, when their 2-1 lead over Sweden evaporated with a point shot from Erik Karlsson that suddenly had the game tied 2-2 and headed to overtime.
Tatar gave Europe its first lead of the afternoon 12 seconds into the third period, picking up his own rebound after Lundqvist mishandled the puck, and beat the New York Rangers goaltender for his first of the tournament. The Detroit Red Wings star scored his first two goals of the tournament, including the overtime victor, and Krueger said the forward has been pushing himself since a first-round game against Canada where Tatar “felt he didn’t play up to his capabilities”.
Captain Canada would give the hosts the lead in the opening period, poking the poke away from Dmitry Kulikov and deking Sergei Bobrovsky and goes backhand shelf. Lundqvist made a glove save on Tatar but couldn’t recover to stop the rebound and the Detroit Red Wings forward put the Europeans up 2-1. Keep in mind that he had a short summer, having played into mid-June en route to winning the Stanley Cup with the Penguins. “He always makes big plays in big games”.
The 57-year-old, fired from his Oilers coaching job by Skype, sat in on Canada’s coaching meetings and is said to be well-versed in the rhythms and philosophies of Babcock and Canada, according to Armstrong.
“He’s just there”, said O’Reilly, who now plays for the Buffalo Sabres.
Those are the types of things that gets your face on a stamp. When people cross-check him he doesn’t get riled up. “But you never know what’s going to happen”.
With a 3-2 overtime win over Team Sweden on Sunday, Team Europe will play Canada in the best-of-three final series starting Tuesday.
Mostly playing alongside Vladimir Tarasenko and Kuznetsov, Ovechkin was blanketed by the checking trio of Jonathan Toews, Logan Couture and Corey Perry as well as the primary defence duo of Shea Weber and Marc-Edouard Vlasic.
“I felt great, I tried to do as much as I can for the team”, Bobrovsky said.
Other primary Russian weapons were also limited.
Kucherov, who finished with a goal and an assist, posed the most danger.
Team Sweden’s coach Rickard Gronborg preached patience throughout the entire World Cup of Hockey and that’s exactly what we saw from his team.
Marchand continues to roll after a career-high 37 goals and 60 points for the Boston Bruins last season. He’s been a nice fit with Crosby and Patrice Bergeron, second in World Cup scoring with five points in four games. “It’s fun to be here and it’s fun playing with this group”.
“Not many of us have been in the finals at global tournaments”, Marian Hossa said.
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“It’s been a whirlwind here”, Marchand added.
