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Team North America offers silver lining for USA Hockey

Sep 25 2016

Auston Matthews of Team North America celebrates his first period power play goal during their World Cup of Hockey game against Team Sweden at the Air C

"We got some great guys on our team and there's still some great guys on that (U.S.) team, as well", Gostisbehere said Wednesday.

"There were a lot of people who were ... unsure of what our team could do because it was the first time it ever has been put together", McDavid said. It's an important game. Jones had tough game with three giveaways. It's too late for that. It's just the best. "Winning two games in this tournament is a big step". It didn't help when he did not play the first official game against Russian Federation on Sunday because he had the flu.

North America continued to apply pressure, but Filip Forsberg was briefly able to stop the bleeding 6:49 later with a snapshot off of the rush to cut the lead to 2-1.

Lundqvist participated in the team's full practice on Monday and said afterward that he would be ready for Finland. On Tuesday, he flashed the pads and dazzled with his glove en route to a victory over the Finns - and Sweden improved to 2-0 in this tournament. Loui Eriksson?said. "Made some really good saves for us". "It's great, it's exciting for us to watch, it looks like a lot of fun".

So goodbye to an imaginary hockey dream with, as Ralph Krueger described Team Europe, no past and no future. He has won Olympic gold (2006) and silver (2014) and hopes to lead his country to another global victory in this tournament.

"Brutal", said one player via text message. "We predicted that the competition would be better than any global tournament to date, that it would have a big-event feel". "You give them opportunity they're going to create and they're going to bury them and make us pay". "After that, we kind of realized how we have to play: smart (and) with a lot of patience, there's no flash to it. Yeah, we'll miss him".

North America is one big slap in the face to unsuspecting opponents, who know how fast the mix of US and Canadian players is but can't possibly adjust to it before seeing it. Gaudreau later scored for North America, but Sweden got goals from Filip Forsberg, Nicklas Backstrom and Patrik Berglund to get to overtime. Lundqvist stopped a few breakaways and Gaudreau's penalty shot to keep it from getting out of hand.

"It's been sensational. It's exactly what we expected", Bettman said. Each game featured more than a handful of did-you-see-that moves, and North America left a lasting impact on the sport.

"We're happy we won", forward Mark Scheifele said.

Laine's best scoring chance of the game came with 40.2 seconds remaining in the second period. Galchenyuk was one of the few bright spots in last year's cratering, and a combination of skill and vision led the youngster to his first 30-goal National Hockey League campaign. It was a precise shot to the top right corner, but Lundqvist snared it with a highlight-reel glove save. Leaving more skilled players at home was too much to overcome. "He's a good goalie and he got it and that's the deal", Laine said.

Beating Sweden was a very important win for the young North American squad. It's not a throw-away game for Sweden. "I thought that we could have fun playing as a team", he said. It'll be interesting to see how he responds to playing two games in less than 24 hours. Whoever wins those two games will square off in the best-of-three final series. Toews countered in the second and Logan Couture scored once more in the third to put the game out of reach. Will he get to? We're not in [the semifinals] yet.

With starting goalie Matt Murray out with a thumb injury, John Gibson stopped 35 of the 38 shots he faced.

"I had my chance and time (with the Hawks) but I have to look at myself".

A MIGHTY CONTINENT: Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Slovenia, Austria and France all likely would've been three and out at this tournament, but with players from those eight countries, Team Europe showed it can hang with the big boys. Who is also undefeated to the surprise of nobody.


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