But what a tourney it was for Team North America: the chemistry 2015 No. 1 pick McDavid and 2016 No. 1 pick Matthews formed on a line together; Gaudreau’s mesmerizing hands; the opening two minutes of the Sweden game; and the capper was MacKinnon’s ridiculous OT goal to beat the Swedes.
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After five goals in the first period, neither team would score in the second.
Team Europe extended their unthinkable run at the World Cup of Hockey with a stunning 3-2 overtime win over favored Sweden on Sunday to earn a surprise berth in the best-of three final against hosts Canada.
Watch today’s highlights from the World Cup of Hockey in the video above. There’s not a whole lot Sweden could do at the moment other than stay undefeated in round robin play.
TORONTO (AP) – Tomas Tatar stuffed in a shot, triggering quite a celebration.
Sweden faces Team Europe in the second semifinal Sunday afternoon in Toronto, with the victor facing Canada in the three-game final.
Lundqvist kept his team in the game, and his team would respond in the third period. Underrated by everyone, including Vegas odds-makers, Team Europe’s coach Ralph Krueger told the Daily Mail, “There’s just complete buy-in on this group”.
“It’s important we don’t get giddy”, Krueger said.
The blended group of players opened the tournament with a 3-0 win over the USA and then beat the Czech Republic in overtime to seal a spot in the semifinals before losing to Canada.
The eight-nation European team will begin a best-of-three series against Canada on Tuesday night for the World Cup of Hockey title.
But the squad mostly cruised through the preliminary round, where they finished runner-up to tournament favorite Canada in Group A, and were not intimidated in the semi-final when they came up against a formidable Swedish defense.
The Europeans are OK with being counted out because they know they wouldn’t even have an opportunity to compete against Canada for their individual countries.
“The only thing that might have changed your outlook, yeah, if you had access to those guys (23) and under, would you have changed the script, would it have given you a chance to maybe look at that?” general manager Dean Lombardi said.
“I think it’s very hard”, Armstrong said.
“The winners here have been the fans”, North America coach Todd McLellan said. I believe that’s the way the game was meant to be played.
Jaroslav Halak stopped 42 shots for Europe.
“We didn’t have to do a lot of extra team-building”, Krueger said.
Lundqvist, who helped the Swedes win gold at the 2006 Olympics, made 28 saves. Both forwards had a goal and an assist.
When Team Europe players have faced Sweden for their countries – Switzerland, Denmark, Slovakia, France, Germany, Slovenia, Austria and Norway – in previous, they didn’t have a legitimate chance to win.
The loss may end up being the last time a pair of aging standouts, Lundqvist and Daniel Sedin, play for Sweden.
Crawford gave up the only goal when ex-Red Wing Marian Hossa – normally his teammate with the Chicago Blackhawks – knuckled a puck past him from a sharp angle in the second period. Most people did. And I feel just a slight bit slighted to see the Canadians take on Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin and this generation of great Russians.
Patrik Berglund scored for Sweden, deflecting a shot from Erik Karlsson to tie the game at three in the third period.
J.T. Miller, a healthy scratch for North America’s first two games, got 6:51 of ice against Sweden, replacing Dylan Larkin in the lineup. Karlsson shot the puck from just inside the blue line on the right side of the rink and Swiss defenseman Roman Josi swiped at the puck with his stick and redirected it into his own net.
A group derided as “Team Leftovers” when the format was first announced – and that had the longest odds coming in at 33 to 1 – will now face Team Canada for the championship.
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“But in saying that, I think the North America kids have been a home run for the National Hockey League”.
