He made it 4-2 with a wrist shot at 17:56 of the second period. “They secured a whole bunch of new fans, I believe”.
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“We didn’t get down on ourselves”, forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said.
There was so much griping about Team North America before the tournament and I didn’t love the idea either, but that game made it all seem worth it. We didn’t get that quick enough in all positions: “goaltending, defense and forwards”.
He had his first point in his future home rink Sunday night in North America’s 4-1 win over Finland.
McDavid made the play, using his speed to accelerate past Pavel Datsyuk after defenceman Colton Parayko retrieved the rebound of an Ovechkin shot and sent it up the boards.
Russian Federation (1-1-0) scored four goals in six minutes 14 seconds in a frenetic second period, prompting North America coach Todd McLellan to pull Matt Murray in favour of John Gibson with 4:17 remaining in the period. Team North America consists of players from the United States and Canada who are under the age of 23. While the first period was rather ineffective, but the second period belonged to Team Sweden with two goals; one by Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog and the other by Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman.
Finland found a little bit of luck in the 3rd period. “We couldn’t kill the momentum”. Goalie Matt Murray was again the backbone of the team, and defensively they were virtually letter flawless, checking the Russians quickly, moving the puck up ice with speed, and taking time away from their opponents.
“I think that we’re all really unselfish players”, Eichel said. “He’s a leader on the team and he plays such a big role”, said Connor McDavid. “We learned a lesson, and maybe we’ll need that against the Swedes a couple days from now”. We don’t know about you, but if the opening days are any indication of the rest of the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, we don’t want to miss a second of the action. We let them swing and build speed. He took two needless penalties in the first period – one for hooking and another for cross-checking – as Russian Federation tried to bully its smaller opponent with late hits and post-whistle scrums. They had their best success when they were moving the puck around the offensive zone, and yet the majority of the time they prefer to go on individual rushes.
Alex Ovechkin scored for Russian Federation, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 27 shots in the Group B game.
It nearly got worse for Finland as the North Americans nearly got a goal from Nathan MacKinnon, but it would be called back as apparently a puck clearly crossing the line doesn’t really count as a goal. still 1-0. It failed to score on an extended 5-on-3 power play and couldn’t beat Bobrovsky on 6-on-4 in the final minute with Shayne Gostisbehere’s shot hitting the post as time ran out.
When the time came for coach Todd McLellan to rally his troops, he shortened the bench and turned to his most reliable players, Matthews and Rielly among them. Now, facing two tremendous teams in back-to-back games, Bobrovsky has 70 saves on 75 shots and looks completely locked in.
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It’s the kids of North America versus the Big Red Machine of Russia in what is a must-win situation for the Russians, or they face an early exit out of the tournament, bringing back painful memories of Sochi 2014. They’re the future of the National Hockey League and fans have taken notice due to their style of play.
