Vladimir Tarasenko and Ivan Telegin scored 1:19 apart in the second period and Russian Federation beat Finland 3-0 to set up a World Cup of Hockey semifinal against Canada.
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The World Cup achieved big-event status in Toronto, with a mostly full arena and buzz around the city.
“That’s the beauty of live sports”, Magnus said by phone Thursday.
Such have been the joys of this event, in which a USA team that unfathomably favored grit over skill got its just rewards by exiting without a win.
In the old days of the U.S.S.R when a team was this talented and competed in an global tournament, it was said that a player or coach would be sent to Siberia as punishment if they didn’t win what was expected. “Every game we’ve gotten more connected”, Kings and Europe winger Marian Gaborik said. “We’re trying to stay calm, but we know what’s at stake”. “But this is the best players in the world”.
Of course, if you did that, then you’d run the risk of making the North American team less competitive – and would defeat the whole goal of having it in the tournament in the first place.
Team Canada head coach Mike Babcock.
“The North American kids have been a home run for the NHL”, Babcock said. Finland was winless for the first time in a senior tournament, scoring only one goal in three games. General manager Dean Lombardi blamed not being prepared for that game for the US bowing out of the World Cup. We’ve got to be careful on Sunday. “You need to accept that and we need to take the medicine”.
On Friday, at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, the Canada Post unveiled the fourth issue of its “Great Canadian Forwards” stamp series which happens to include former Detroit Red Wings great, Steve Yzerman. Goalie Carey Price is on, and Canada looks unstoppable as usual. We can’t just go on offence like we did in that pre-tournament game.
HOW SWEDE IT IS: Lundqvist stopped 81 of 85 shots in two games and is the top reason Sweden can win this. While Sweden, gold medal winners at the 2006 Turin Olympics and silver medallists in Sochi, boasts a quality hockey pedigree, they are matched against a gimmicky squad of smaller hockey playing nations cobbled together for this tournament.
“He’s been our MVP”, forward Carl Hagelin said. While Sweden was always expected to challenge for top spot, Team Europe have been the big surprise and could be playing in their first and last World Cup. “I was a little guy and I nearly cried”, he said. It’s the World Cup’s Cinderella in the Final Four after creating its own September madness, and coach Ralph Krueger beamed about Europe’s “underdog spirit”.
It is especially important when you face a team with as many individual offensive weapons as Russia – Ovechkin and Vladimir Tarasenko, with 90 goals between them last season, connected for a beauty against Finland – but the real benefit for Team Canada is that it put basically all of the emphasis on itself rather than its opponents. In stunning contrast to the rich tradition Russian Federation and Canada bring, Sweden and Team Europe, a rag tag collection of players from eight countries coached by Ralph Krueger, whose day job is chairman of Premiership side Southampton FC, will be a novelty.
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“The atmosphere’s going to be unbelievable”.
