Men's Ice Hockey World Cup of Hockey 2016

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Kapow! Bang! Zap! Kids win 4-1!

North Americans dominate as Rinne peppered

Connor McDavid and his Under-24 teammates dominated Finland in impressive fashion.

 

These kids are more than alright; they’re downright spectacular. And anyone who thought their pre-tournament success was a fluke, well, think again. Team North America dominated Finland from start to finish, winning by a 4-1 score that could have been double that.

The young guns outshot Finland, 43-25, and Matt Murray in the North American goal was rock solid, stopping all but one shot.

"All four lines did their job," Auston Matthews said. "We put them on their heels and had a great game."

Despite never being a team until ten days ago, the North Americans showed incredible chemistry, notably the top line of Connor McDavid-Matthews-Mark Scheifele.

"I think it's a case of everyone thinks the game really well," McDavid suggested. "We've been juggling the lines quite a bit, so everyone has been playing with everyone else. We did some good stuff. We created quite a bit and didn't give anything up."

Coach Todd McLellan couldn't agree more. "We're starting to form a team now. It was their play away from the puck that impressed me. They used their speed to catch their men and that was great to see."

The first period was a combination of domination by the young guns and nerves in goal by Rinne. Had things gone more favourably for the North Americans, they might have had a three- or four-goal lead by the first intermission.

"They skated hard. They won every battle. They're a great team. It's that simple," said a humbled Finnish coach Lauri Marjamaki.

North America opened the scoring at 5:03 on a power play. Matthews took a shot from close range that Rinne couldn’t handle cleanly, and Jack Eichel was Johnny-on-the-spot to poke it in for a 1-0 lead.

Soon after, the first of several pucks slid through Rinne’s pads only to stop on the goal line (confirmed by video review), and later Johnny Gaudreau bolted down the right wing and ripped a shot off the near post.

Late in the period McDavid thought he had scored the second goal for the kids, but another review indicated goalie interference. Before the end of the period Rinne bobbled another harmless shot but managed to keep the puck out.

The NAers came out in the second with even greater purpose and controlled the puck on a string. They made it 2-0 at 5:27 when Colton Parayko’s point shot was deftly tipped by height-challenged, skill-laden Johnny Gaudreau.

Two minutes later, after a shift in which the Finns could not so much as get a stick on the puck, Jonathan Drouin took a shot which Rinne couldn’t control and popped his own rebound home.

Parayko later recovered a bad pass by Valtteri Filppula inside the Finnish blueline and took a quick shot. Nathan MacKinnon was there with another rebound goal at 14:37.

"We could have been up 3-0 after the first," Jack Eichel noted, "but we used that to gain momentum in the second, and shut them down in the third. We were able to open the game in the second with some big goals. We did a lot of things that we talked about before the game, which was good."

The Finns broke Murray's shutout with four minutes left in the game when a loose puck came free in front and Filppula whacked it in. It was much too little, too late, though.

The Finns now need to regroup before playing Sweden on Tuesday. The North Americans are right back tomorrow night against Russia in a game that should be a thrilling ride. Don’t miss it! Zing! Wham! Zap! The kids will give CCCP all it can handle.
 

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Palát - Plekanec - Voráček
M. Michálek - Hanzal - Pastrnák
Červenka - Sobotka - Hemský
Birner - Jaškin - Frolík

Kempný - Polák
Nakládal - Šustr
Z. Michálek - Jordán

 

Mrázek (Neuvirth)

 

Scratched: Kundrátek, Pavelec, Faksa (Injury)

 

 

 

Team Europe

 

Tatar - Kopitar - Hossa  
Gáborík - Nielsen - Zuccarello
Rieder - Draisaitl - Niederreiter  
Vanek - Bellemare - Hansen  

 

 

Sekera   - Chára  

Josi   - Seidenberg

Streit - Ehrhoff

 

Halák   (Greiss ) 

 

Scratched: Boedker , Sbisa  , Grubauer 
 

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what a game so far ! such huge hockey...Europe - CZE  1-1 after 2nd period...The Europeans opened the score by slovak tower Zdeno Chára but the czechs equalized the match by Jakub Voráček.

 

Absolutely astonishing match of the czech goalie Mrázek..oh lord he is just awesome

 

pitty for Europe..the missed penalty shot of Kopitar...also the czech goal was a kinda weird for Halák..but he was exceptional so far so you can´t blame him I guess

 

looking forward for the 3rd period..

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What a match

 

Europe won 3-2 after over time thanks a goal of the german megatalent Leon Draisaitl.

 

Incredible but true. Team Europe has now 4 points from 2 matches. No one expected that

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Czech Republic - Team Europe  2-3 (OT)

 

 

 

 

 

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Draisaitl scores OT winner

Team Europe wins again, puts Czechs in a deep hole

Team Europe and the Czech Republic played a hard-fought game this afternoon at the ACC.

 

Leon Draisaitl beat Petr Mrazek on a breakaway at 2:06 of overtime off a perfect pass from Mats Zuccarello to give Team Europe a dramatic 3-2 win over the Czech Republic.

The Europeans are now 2-0 and in great position to qualify for the semi-finals. The Czechs fall to 0-2 and must beat the United States on Thursday to have any chance of playing in the final four.

"It feels great to score in such a big game," Draisaitl said. "A breakaway or shootout is really 50-50, so I decided to shoot. Fortunately, it went in."

"We're very excited with what we've done in these two games," captain Anze Koitar said of his team's two wins to start the World Cup. "But I think the score was closer than we wanted it to be. Still, we got the two points, and that's what we wanted. We know we've done something special so far, but we want to keep it going."

The Europeans finish their round robin on Wednesday night against Canada, and even one point from that game would ensure a semi-finals spot for them.

"We're enjoying ourselves and playing good hockey," Zuccarello enthused. "We're having fun at the rink and outside the rink. There are a lot of good guys and experienced guys here."

"I've never seen a team come together as quickly in my 25 years of coaching," Ralph Krueger said. "And we're not done yet."

The importance of this game could be seen in the tentative first period, 20 minutes dominated by a lack of action and a fear by all concerned of making a mistake. The best chance of the opening period came off the stick of large defenceman Zdeno Chara. The Team Europe blueliner had a clear shot that ricocheted off Mrazek’s stick and out of play.

The Europeans, though, came out with greater purpose in the second. They had two quick power plays, the second of which drew a penalty shot when Czech defenceman Michal Kempny closed his hand on the puck in the crease at 2:31. But on the ensuing freebie Kopitar tried a cute deke that didn’t work.

Nonetheless, the Europeans dominated, Mrazek the only Czech player involved in the game at all. The conglomerate was rewarded with a goal at 10:05 when Chara wired a quick shot from the side boards with Mrazek fighting to get back into position.

To the Czechs’ credit, the goal fired them up. On the next shift they nearly tied the score, but Dennis Seidenberg made a nice swat at the puck off the goal line. Soon after, though, Jakub Voracek beat Halak to the far side at 13:28 to tie the game.

The Europeans had a great chance to go ahead early in the third when they had a two-man advantage for 64 seconds, but all that came of the power play was a sensational glove save from Mrazek, who robbed Roman Josi point blank with a great glove save.

Moments later, though, Mrazek flubbed an easy save with that same glove. Zuccarello skated down the left wing and drifted a routine shot on goal, but the puck squirted through Mrazek's glove and in at 2:17.

Once again, though, the Czechs responded, this time on a power play at 8:31. Vladimir Sobotka's point shot went wide, but it bounced off the end boards and back out in front where Martin Hanzal swatted the puck in before Halak could react.

That set the stage for overtime and Draisaitl's heroics.
 

 

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Czech Republic - Team Europe  2-3  (OT)  HIGHLIGHTS

 

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Ovechkin - Datsyuk - Kucherov

Kulemin - Malkin - Tarasenko
Panarin - Shypachyov - Dadonov
Telegin - Anisimov - Kuznetsov

Orlov - Zaitsev

Markov - Emelin
Kulikov - Marchenko

 

Bobrovsky (Varlamov)

 

Scratched: Nesterov, Namestnikov, Vasilevskiy

 

 

 

Team North America

 

Drouin - Nugent-Hopkins - MacKinnon 
Mathews - McDavid - Scheifele
Gaudreau - Eichel  - Larkin
Trocheck - Couturier - Saad     

 

 

Ekblad - Rielly    

R. Murray - Jones

Gostisbehere - Parayko  

 

M. Murray (Gibson )  

 

Scratched: Miller , Trouba  , Hellebuyck 

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Today we must win Sweden in order to survive in this tournament