The old Cold War rivalry, which started with the Summit Series in 1972 and probably peaked with the 1987 Canada Cup, was on tap again Saturday night, in the World Cup of hockey semi-final. Russian Federation had looked very unsafe heading into the game, and it figured to be a much closer contest than most of Canada’s games to date. The penalties were frequent throughout the period, with most being called against the Russians. The trio accounted for three of the goals Canada scored, with Crosby scoring the first of the night and Bergeron getting the next two for Canada.
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Canada held a vast territorial edge in the play – at one point almost midway through the game, the shots were 24-7 in their favour – but it was a nail biter until the early stages of the third period, thanks to the inspired play of Russian goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. Eight minutes later, Russian Federation had a 2-1 lead.
“They hit the crossbar and then we scored two goals right away”. Sweden does have some talent in the offensive zone as the likes of Gabriel Landeskog and Flilip Forsberg can fill the cage but that isn’t the way this Swedish group is set up and they are built to play a grind out type of game and use their team defense to take advantage in transition. Carey Price, by the way, is 14-0 playing for Canada. Misplayed pucks and succumbing to pressure from Canada was a big reason they couldn’t manage to get over the hump in this particular tournament. “We had a good opportunity to beat them tonight, to get through to the final”.
Russia’s lack of defensive depth will be their undoing against Canada; the Canadian offence is too well-balanced and aggressive for the sub-par Russian blueline corps.
But Canada was on a mission. “They want to have success and we want to have success, only one of us gets to leave tomorrow happy”, said Mike Babcock, Team Canada coach.
While there was drama lingering as the third period dawned, it didn’t last long.
At the start of the third Bobrovsky stretched like an acrobat to take a goal away from Marchand, and then Marchand beat Bobrovsky clean on a ideal wrist shot from the top of the circle. Corey Perry was left alone in front early in the second period but was denied by a pad save.
“That tying goal was huge for us”, defenceman Shea Weber added.
Tavares and linemates, Ryan Getzlaf and Steven Stamkos, were punishing over the first two periods, but among those thrwarted by Bobrovsky.
Sergei Bobrovsky came into the semifinal as arguably the best goalie of the World Cup, but this was his best game. From the first minute, he went out his glove to rob Marchand a certain goal. And saying that, when Russian Federation plays Canada I think it is a big deal and you want to have success.
Sidney Crosby was nothing short of magnificent. The second game is set for Thursday while a third game, if necessary, would be played on October 1.
What’s really in question, though, is how Russian Federation will match up with Canada.
And, it looked as if it might be that way even before the puck dropped. The Great Eight had one shot on goal and that came with 12 minutes left in the third. He stopped 16 of 17 shots in the first frame, continuing his stifling efforts into the second. He wasn’t letting in any stinkers, so there wasn’t much to legitimately criticize at all.
The highly-anticipated clash between the two nations was their first in a best-on-best tournament since Canada dominated a quarter-finals showdown at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. While Russia didn’t win, there’s only so much he can do. They had 75 attempts to Russia’s 55.
Is Canada’s dominance good for hockey?
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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.
