Nathan MacKinnon scored on a third-period penalty shot for his second goal of the game, and Penguins goaltender Matt Murray made 24 saves in Team North America’s 4-0 victory over Team Europe on Thursday night in a World Cup of Hockey exhibition game.
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“I’m not sure why we’re playing back-to-backs, but we are”, said Tortorella before the game. “That’s one way to do that, but at the same time, it’s feeling them out as well and just knowing what their strengths are and kind of getting a glimpse of what they might bring to the table at tournament time”.
With the World Cup being the ultimate pinnacle in global ice hockey, both these teams won’t want to give each other an inch in what should be a hugely entertaining game.
And Max Pacioretty is getting a wakeup call from Team USA before the World Cup of Hockey even gets under way. We were really creating a lot of stuff and I think it just came off a forecheck.
But the United States has loaded up with two-way, heavy checking forwards, players who can score and skate but are also hard to play against.
Besides, you never know when an underdog team beats the odds in a tournament like this and makes some unexpected noise – like Switzerland’s silver-medal showing at the 2013 IIHF world championship or Iceland’s run to the soccer quarter-finals at this year’s European Championship.
Mind you, the Canadians had their sloppy moments, as well; again, I think it was caused by the physical and mental fatigue of back-to-back games. He has already got under the skin of Team Canada, and the tournament hasn’t started yet. “I know how he can play, and this is what happens in this type of tournament and the team makeup”.
Tortorella acknowledged the USA isnt the most skilled team in the tournament, and it did fine physically going up against Canada in bump-and-grind, testy situations. Now, it will be interesting to see how much influence this result has on John Tortorella’s goaltending decision for the tournament.
The U.S. beat Canada 4-2 on Friday night in Columbus, Ohio.
– Forward Corey Perry (Anaheim) and defenseman Jay Bouwmeester (St. Louis) will be Canada’s extras tonight. “We have a strong leadership group and a good staff”. “I think he is ready for more responsibility, and I am ready to give it to him because he deserves it”.
Max is a pretty important player for us and we hope he gets going for us and does some of the things we need him to do.. It’s great to have an embarrassment of riches in the defensive positions, and that’s what the United States has in abundance.
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Tortorella said he cant afford to wait because of the short tourney. You’re not going to get your 20 minutes if other people are going – they tend to take some ice time. I just wasn’t sure if it was stick or skate. You can be guaranteed that if even the exhibition games are intense, they’ll get even more hard.
