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By Chris Stanford
It was perhaps fitting that it went all the way to a shootout as Canada battled back from a two-goal deficit and triumphed 5-4 in an absolute thriller of a game against Team USA in the round-robin of the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships in Saskatoon Thursday night.
In front of a sea of red jerseys worn by the home-town crowd, Jordan Eberle had a pair for Canada and made good on his shootout attempt, but Canadian turnovers, US shorthanded goals and stellar goaltending were really the story on the night.
In game that had a lot of everything that makes hockey what it is, Canada looked nervous early and had trouble handling the speed and relentless attack of an American side that refused to go away, finding themselves playing from behind for the first time in the tournament.
Luckily, they saved their best for when it mattered most and earned a berth in the semi-finals with the win, while Team USA will have to battle through the quarter-finals.
Although Team Canada got on the board first, as they have done in every game so far in the tournament, their sloppy powerplay proved to be their own undoing and the USA took advantage of their opportunities.
Stefan Della Rovere of the OHL’s Barrie Colts got Canada up quickly with his second of the tournament, banging a rebound in the low slot past American goaltender jack Campbell at the 2:03 mark of the first, but Team USA had a reply for that a minute and a half later.
With Brayden Schenn of the Brandon Wheat Kings in the box for boarding, Philip McRae snapped a loose puck past Jake Allen to even it up with only 3:40 played in what may have been the theme of the game.
The two evenly-matched teams played to a stalemate for some 20-plus minutes until Jordan Schroeder of a short-handed Team USA grabbed a puck as centre ice and streaking in alone, went five-hole on Allen to put Canada down one, Canada’s best player on the night, the Regina Pats Jordan Eberle, made sure that didn’t last long as he took a Schenn pass and beat Campbell at the 11:15 mark of the frame.
Allen stood on his head to keep Canada in it, causing Team USA’s Chris Kreider to shoot wide on a penalty shot past midway and then burning Kyle Palmieri on a breakaway three minutes after that.
Canada’s troubles continued and Tyler Johnson of the Spokane Chiefs got the second shorthanded Team USA goal of the night, putting in a rebound off a Jerry D’ Amigo shot with 11 second left in the second to put the USA ahead for the second time in the game.
With another Team Canada poweplay just expired, Danny Kristo’s solo effort on a Canadian neutral-zone turrnover put USA up 4-2 with a minute gone in the third, but Team Canada and the drama was not done yet.
With Brandon McMillan moved back onto defense, when his point shot went off Eberle at the halfway mark of the third, the comeback was on. Alex Pietrangelo sent the crowd into ecstasy when he added his own shorthanded goal to tie it up a few minutes later and Team Canada looked to have pulled ahead wirth 2:10 left as Travis Hamonic’s point shot beat Campbell, but it was disallowed with Brayden Schenn having been judged to have interfered with the goalie.
After the four-on-four five-minute overtime proved nothing, other than that the WHL should seriously look at doing that for the excitement alone, it was left to the dramatic goaltender-shooter showdown to decide matters.
The first five shooters, including Eberle, Nazim Kadri and Brandon Kozun for Canada, along with Kristo and Jeremy Morin for USA all made good on their attempts, so when Allen closed the five-hole on Schroeder, who had to make his, the arena in Saskatoon erupted.
With the win Team Canada finished first in Pool A will now meet the winner of the Jan. 2 quarter-final between Russia and Switzerland in the semis on Jan. 3 at 2 p.m. PST, while the USA will meet Finland in their quarter-final Jan. 2. The winner of that game will move on to face Sweden, who booked their semi-final berth with a 7-1 win over the Finns earlier Thursday.
The gold-medal final is scheduled for Jan. 5 at 5 p.m. PST. All playoff games will be held in Saskatoon.
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Tags: IIHF world juniors, team canada
