Team North America, boasting a youthful and highly skilled lineup, has provided a number of thrills in this tournament.
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“It was something we needed”, McLellan said of the quick early goal.
After a seemingly easy go in the first game, handing the Finns a 4-1 loss, the North Americans seemed to have some odds stacked against them. Too many odd-man rushes to count.
North America, which featured top young players such as Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews, Johnny Gaudreau andBrandon Saad, among others, finished 2-1 but fell short in its bid to reach the semifinals when Team Russia defeated Team Finland 3-0 on Thursday to advance and join Team Sweden out of Group B. In Group A, Team Canada and Team Russia already had clinched spots in the semis.
Canadian Nathan MacKinnon roofed the winning goal with 49 seconds to play in overtime when he was in alone deep in the Swedish zone and used a series of dekes to avoid a pokecheck from Henrik Lundqvist before backhanding the puck into the net. At the next World Cup, the United States will surely want any young stars it might harvest from these ranks, and Lord knows USA Hockey needs them.
It was Big Boy Hockey at its finest, a high-speed chess match between the upstart and the reigning Olympic silver medalists, an afternoon featuring mind-warping speed and even a penalty shot.
“Which would you rather watch?”‘ Team Canada head coach Mike Babcock asked, interrupting my long-winded question after his team’s 4-1 win over Europe, knowing very well where I was headed with this. Until then, it’s just an exciting World Cup of Hockey preliminary matchup.
“We’re teammates back home, but we’re definitely cheering against him”, Blue Jackets wing Brandon Saad said.
“It’s been sensational. It’s exactly what we expected”, Bettman said. If we lost we’re out so we gave ourselves a chance. Any kind of win by Team Finland will do it.
Carl Hagelin said “I played with Hank enough to know that he will step up when it really matters”. “Being around Henrik for a few weeks now, we knew he was going to come in and have a great game”. We’ve been very entertaining.
Especially in regard to Team USA, it’s been hockey at its worst; brutish, sloppy, sluggish, just a canvas slung with paint and no brush or form or discernible skill. But the coaches did-they just didn’t tell the kids. “They’ll show up and play”.
The hybrid collection of Canadian and American players 23 and younger lived to see another day with a pulsating 4-3 victory over Sweden at the Air Canada Centre.
Auston Matthews, Vincent Trocheck and Johnny Gaudreau also scored for North America (2-1-0).
While McDavid is not looking to play for Team North America again, he believes the concept was a good one and wouldnt mind if it continued at the next World Cup but not at the expense of the Olympics. There are going to be an terrible lot of Finland fans throughout the US and Canada, perhaps none bigger than Morgan Rielly and his North America teammates. Lundqvist was forced to make 45 saves against the Young Guns, bringing his total to 81 stops over a span of 24 hours.
Over the course of those five minutes, both teams traded opportunities but it came down to Nathan MacKinnon fooling Lundqvist with a nifty toe-drag move to win it for Team North America. “He’s 21. It tugs at them”, Nill said. “Three games in four days”.
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Karlsson said the message on the bench was to “wake the bleep up”.
