It’s not the Bronze medal game most expected, but it’s still shaping up to be a good one. Taking down the consensus favourite was no doubt a huge confidence boost for the Canadians, who will have the extremely loud fans at the Bell Centre cheering them on.
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“I don’t know why they’re not coming to the games”.
From there the Canadians began to stabilize, scoring again at the 18:49 mark when Anthony Cirelli beat Swedish netminder Felix Sandstrom. They block a tonne of shots, and they have an excellent transition game.
Much like a typical NCAA Final Four where you’d expect to see Kentucky, Duke and North Carolina, there are no surprises at the World Juniors.
Sweden meet Russian Federation first in the bronze medal match before the the USA and Canada compete for the gold medal later on. That said, this USA team has had very few hiccups in the tournament. They chased the Swedes, hit them, tried to feed them their lunch.
In Moscow in 1988 – one year after both Canada and the Soviet Union had been tossed from the tournament for brawling, depriving the Canadians of what many believed would be a second consecutive gold – Canada went 6-0-1 to finish a point ahead of the Soviets, who lost their game against Canada 3-2.
Ducharme strayed from his preliminary-round gameplan of alternating goalies by calling on Connor Ingram to start for the second consecutive time.
Latvian goaltender Mareks Mitens made 43 saves. Welcome to the pool, kid, dive right in.
By the end of the first the game was tied at 2, but the Swedes lead on shots, up 16-12. Carter Hart came in and stopped all 28 shots he faced the rest of the way. Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be goalies, in most cases.
But this Canadian team never slipped. That scenario wasn’t as important on Thursday night as 4 on 4 turned out to be. It was a comprehensive effort from Canada, from front to back. The Swiss put pressure on the United States through the entire second half, and it was only thanks to a timely power play goal that the U.S. was able to skate away with a shaky 3-2 win. Late in the game, John Slaney broke a 2-2 tie with a long slapshot. Gauthier scored again to make it 5-3 and the Czechs kept pressing, looking for more.
The early game, meanwhile, was a classic.
The Site Selection Committee awarded the tournament to the Province of B.C. and BC Hockey in a live press conference from Rogers Arena in Vancouver two weeks ago.
“On their days off, (the players) usually get to come over to the hotel where the parents are and they spend two to three hours with the family”, Brent said.
Listen to the game on one of the listed TSN Radio affiliates via the TuneIn Radio or IHeartRadio apps if you’re in the US.
“Yeah, it was super fast and emotional game”, said Russian defenceman Mikhail Sergachev. “I’m working on things I need to get better at”. Even still, the United States has that unbeatable air about them, and Canada will be in tough. “Nobody was afraid. On our team, everybody was fearless”.
The US game was the only blemish for Canada, who have run roughshod over their opponents for the most part. Troy Terry of Denver University scored on all three of his shootout attempts, the last in the seventh round.
Certainly, Canada will have to be better against Sweden than it was against the Czech Republic. The decision by Ducharme was the flawless call and the tide turned in favour of Team Canada.
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“We played Canadian hockey tonight”, coach Dominique Ducarme said. They all mean well.
