Americans secure quarterfinal berth with emotional win over Canada

The Americans entered the game in the driver´s seat, knowing that anything better than a three-goal loss would guarantee them first place in Group A. They won 5-3, but received their biggest challenge so far from the Canadians, who finish third in the group.

Going into the last game of Group A, the three playoff teams were known, but their final order of finish was still to be determined. The Americans were in the best position, as they had won their first three games without surrendering a goal, while Canada had lost to Finland, meaning that they would need to win by three or more goals to claim top spot, and anything less than the full three points would mean finishing third.

The first period was played relatively conservatively, which played into the hands of the Americans. Neither team scored, although American Matt Lane had the best chance to score late in the game after he was tripped by Damon Severson on a breakaway. Lane, however, was denied by goaltender Matt Murray, who took away the five-hole.

In USA-Canada encounters, it doesn’t usually take long for the emotions to take over, and in the second period the physical play picked up, which meant lots of big hits and calls to be made by the referees. There were four goals scored in the period, two by each team, and they were all on power plays.

Early in the middle frame, with American Connor Carrick in the penalty box, Canada’s Hunter Shinkaruk scored on a rebound to open the scoring. After an amazing string of 10 straight shutout periods, the Americans had finally been scored upon. It didn’t take them long to get it back, however. Less than a minute after the goal, Branden Troock went to the box for elbowing, and on the ensuing power play, Matt Grzelcyk beat Murray with a hard shot to tie the score. At the exact midway point of the hockey game, Canada regained the lead on another power play, as Shinkaruk set up Matt Dumba for a shot under the crossbar; the second points of the night for both players.

In the second half of the period, the bodies really began flying, which was entertaining to the fans in attendance. The biggest hit was delivered by US captain Seth Jones, sending Mike Winther flying. A minute later, in a retaliation act, Kerby Rychel hit a player in a vulnerable position and was assessed a minor penalty and a ten-minute misconduct for checking from behind. On the resulting power play, Murray stopped Quentin Shore’s initial shot, but Riley Barber managed to jam in the rebound to tie the game once more.

Early in the third period, the Americans really put themselves in a good situation by scoring a couple more goals. First Murray stopped Shore on a breakaway, but the puck ended up going back to Seth Jones, who fired a bullet into the top corner to give the US team its first lead of the game. Less than two minutes later, Lane sent a nice pass from behind the net to Frank Vatrano, who beat Murray with a quick one-timer.

“It was tough game,” said Vatrano, whose goal ultimately stood up as the winner. “Canada led 1-0 and 2-1, but we answered fast both times. Those were key moments of the game. We tried to not concentrate on the fact that we were playing against Canada. We want play good every single game.”

Canada didn’t quit, however, and they got one goal back with just under five minutes left. An American defensive lapse left Ryan Pulock all alone in the slot, and he had all the time he needed to tee up a shot and blast it through the legs of Collin Olson. It was the third goal that Olson had surrendered in the game and the tournament, but probably the first one that he was actually able to see.

That was as close as Canada could get, however. They called a timeout with 1:20 to go and pulled Murray, but Matt Lane, earlier denied on a penalty shot, put the game away with an empty-net goal.

With the win, the Americans finish first and go straight to the semifinals on Friday, while Canada finishes third in the group and draws Russia as a semifinal opponent on Thursday in Breclav.