Men's Ice Hockey World Cup of Hockey 2016

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Canada sends Americans packing

Puck pressure, speed, chemistry too much in 4-2 game

Matt Duchene (middle) celebrates one of his two goals in a big win against the United States.

 

Team USA will not be playing in the World Cup beyond its final round-robin game on Thursday night against the Czech Republic. Tonight’s decisive 4-2 loss to Canada ensured as much.

The Americans have now lost both their games and sit in last place of Group A with no points.

"We had a good start," offered U.S. coach John Tortorella, "but we gave them a couple of freebies. We can't do that. They surged after that, and we had no answer. It's disappointing, frustrating. We have not played well offensively. We have skilled players, but as a group we had just one goal in two games."

Matt Duchene had two goals for the winners. "It felt good," he said. "There's lots to improve on, but it was a solid win. To play on this stage, against the U.S., and score a couple of goals felt pretty awesome. We had a chance to put them out of the tourney, and we did."

Canada’s win was the result of tenacious puck pursuit, superior skill with the puck, and a skating lineup top to bottom among the 12 forwards.

The Canadians can clinch top spot in the group with a win against Team Europe tomorrow night.

A desperate Team USA got just the start it needed, opening the scoring at 4:27 on a fortuitous play. Although they lost the puck off the rush, Canadian defenceman Marc-Edouard Vlasic cleared the puck into the chest of Ryan McDonagh.

McDonagh managed to control the puck and fire a quick shot past Carey Price to give the Americans some much needed momentum.

Canada, however, deep in talent and experience, came right back and then some. Just a minute and a half later, Vlasic’s point shot came out the other side of the goal and Duchene popped the puck in before Jonathan Quick could do anything about it.

Fourteen seconds after that Logan Couture lifted a backhand pass across the crease that went off Quick’s stick, hit Corey Perry, and bounced into the net. The U.S. challenged the goal, but video review confirmed it was a good—albeit ugly—hockey goal.

Then, to complete the onslaught in the opening period, Erik Johnson made a bad giveaway deep in his end. Duchene moved in alone on goal and made a sensational deke, tucking the puck between the pads of Quick with calm and poise, making it 3-1 at 12:07.

"Getting the lead and then adding to it just gave us more energy," Patrice Bergeron said. "That's all you can ask for."

Although the Americans started the second with good forechecking and pressure, Canada kept them to the outside and allowed few good scoring chances. And when the time came, Canada got a good bounce and capitalized on its chances, notably at 8:50.

John Tavares flew down the left wing, made a sensational deke, and passed the puck to Bergeron in front. He was checked by McDonagh, but in the process the puck bounced off both players’ skates and in. Canada now led, 4-1.

Although Canada skated well in the third, there were some worrisome moments in goal as Price was beaten three times without suffering the consequences. Derek Stepan, Dustin Byfuglien, and Max Pacioretty all hit the post with hard shots, but the puck stayed out each time.

The Americans did inch closer at 17:28 when T.J. Oshie pushed a loose puck over the line from the crease, but that was as close as his team got.

"We did a lot of the little things well tonight, but we have to keep getting better," added Joe Thornton. "It's a short tournament. Every line expects to do big things when they're out there, so it's no shock when we do."

 

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USA - Canada  2-4   HIGHLIGHTS

 

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Team North America

Mathews - McDavid - Scheifele
Gaudreau - Nugent-Hopkins - MacKinnon 

Larkin - Couturier - Trocheck
Saad - Eichel  - Miller   

 

 

R. Murray - Jones

Rielly - Parayko  

Gostisbehere - Trouba  

 

Gibson (Hellebuyck )  

 

Scratched: Drouin , M. Murray    (Thumb) , Ekblad    (Upper Body Injury)

 

 

 

D. Sedin - H. Sedin - Eriksson

Forsberg - Backstrom - Hornqvist
Hagelin - Kruger - Silfverberg
Landeskog - Berglund - Soderberg
 

Ekholm - Karlsson

Hedman - Stralman
Ekman-Larsson - Hjalmarsson

 

 

Lundqvist (Markstrom)

 

 

Scratched: Lindholm, Backlund, Enroth

 

[phelps 8,338]

to be honest, yesterday I didn't watch the games I would have liked to see...

 

the Scandinavian derby, as often happened in recent years, was tight and closed, but played at a slow pace, very tactical with not many scoring chances nor amazing saves...

it was one of those games that I like to classify as "for hardcore Hockey fans/true Hockey experts only", which is a gentle way to say that it was quite boring...

 

the North American classic, instead, was played as expected, but once again it was a one sided match, with Canada taking full control of the operations already in the first period right after the lucky opening goal by the USA and letting their rivals far behind with no chance of coming even close to them...

and once again I didn't see that famous American heart & pride they are well known for...

 

as a result, we have a group that's already over, with Europe and Canada easily trough to the semis and USA and Czech Rep. ready to get back home...

 

but at least in a few minutes time we have a very interesting match-up between the North American youngsters and Sweden...and I hope they will be more inspired (and inspiring) than yesterday...

 

not sure, instead, what to expect from tonight's clash betwen CAN and Team Europe...

but to tell you the truth, I'm afraid we're going to have another blow-out (with CAN winning easily, of course)...

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what a starttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt of team North America v

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Sweden finally passed the ice center at 5th minute

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pretty weird one from Gibson here.

 

Swe score 1-2  10th minute

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what a pace ! what a match ! what a match !

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well, this was such absolutely crazy over time. Hockey is a fantastic game