At glory’s door

Canada and USA are back on ice four days after last confrontation but now it’s a World Championship semifinal and not a simply preliminary group match. Last Sunday Canada won 2-1 a tough game; today won’t probably be different. While Canada restored its energy with two days of rest, USA battled against Czech Republic in a supposedly difficult quarter final become a country outing for Phil Housley squad, useful to have back from one-game suspension the defender Shayne Gostisbehere.

As expected game is not spectacular in the first period, teams know each other perfectly to leave something to chance. Goalies Malcolm Subban and John Gibson are alert and reactive and is not easy for forwards, despite both teams have great snipers, to find space for shots. If attack doesn’t work, is the defense to be called to break balance: the star in this first period is Wisconsin University and USA captain Jake McCabe: he leaves his imprint on the game perfectly finalizing in depth actions by USA: at 07:18 he begins and finalize a persistent action, receiving from Riley Barber and finding the net in the middle of a crowd of Canadian sticks ended up hassling Subban vision; at 16:02 riddling with shot the Canadian goalie, well assisted by Rocco Grimaldi.


Down by two and after a dull first period, Canada begins the second more aggressive and Gibson has to work to stop some shot, but at 22:58 an inspired John Gaudreau finds the third goal after a classy move on Ryan Murphy: he left the Kitchener defender on ice and beats Subban with a precise shot. Canada reacts immediately and has a good chance with Mark McNeill but Gibson is ready to deflect and a shot by Jonathan Drouin. Canada supremacy is interrupted by the first penalty of the game to Nugent-Hopkins that allow USA to breath after some minutes of total pressure. The game lives then a kind of limbo until minute 32, when Jim Vesey literally creates the fourth goal with a classy move. Four goals in 32 minutes are enough for Subban, replaced by back up Jordan Binnington, who debuts on ice with a spectacular dive to save a shot by Galchenyuk. After a very dangerous counter-attack, Usa goalie Gibson is lucky when instinctively blocked a Brett Ritchie deflection few seconds after the end of period.



After 5 minutes in the last period Ty Rattie finally finds the way to beat Gibson, the action seems regular but seconds before the shot a whistle was heard in the arena so the action needs video replay before to be approved by referees between American complains. Grimaldi has a good chance around minute 50 but Binnington blocked. Also Gibson is secure on a Ryan Strome tentative and then on McKinnon. At minute 50, with Gaudreau on the sin bin, Nugent-Hopkins has a great chance but Gibson is amazing in saving with the hand and incredible seconds later on rebounding an Hamilton tentative. At 56 USA closes definitely the game: John Gaudreau receives from TJ Miller and his run ends with a puck behind Bennington: it’s the final 5-1, a too severe gap for Canada even if Stephan Spott troop was very imprecise in the shots and never finds the necessary countermeasure to stop quick American forwards. USA again demonstrates to be a very balanced and strong team with several options to score and talent in all lines. MVP: Scott Harrington – Jake McCabe


In the post game, American players are obviously radiant but down to earth: “We deserve to win – said captain Jake McCabe – but we know we have again a long way to our final goal. We prepared this game very carefully and all works on ice. We played just how we needed to play, keeping the puck in their end. We got ahead and stayed out of the box using our speed to our advantage.” If he now prefers Sweden or Russia, MaCabe said: “Both are world classy teams, we played with Sweden in preliminary round so we already know their style, Russia play at home and with all the pressure on it, so in any case it will be a very difficult game.”

Defender Scott Harrington can’t explain what happened: “I haven’t the best feeling of the world right now, we totally wrong the approach in the first period and when we try to react it was too late. I felt the pressure, we know there were a lot of expectations so now we have to mentally recover the energies and try to go back with a medal for our country, even if not with the color we wanted.”

Canadian coach Stephen Spott uses a key word to describe the loss of his team: “We have no excuse, they were definitely more desperate then us, they fought on every puck and always come first. We don’t have the energy and the desperation needed. We have many things to review, firstly our mental approach to the decisive game. We practiced yesterday and we had good feelings but today was a completely different story”.

USA coach Phil Housley celebrates his team: “I’m very proud of my guys, we are growing in every game, we improve game after game and this leaves me optimistic because I’m seeing we are a solid team. I wanna highlight the goaltending, John (Gibson) was outstanding in the last games and today he made the key saves in the key time. And inside the team I can see that the leaders are doing a great job inside and outside the ice. Apart Jake (McCabe) we have five captains able to constantly motivate the rest of the guys.”

Find the complete photos portfolio of the game here

 

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