Contents: On the model of most games played since Quarter Finals, no goal has been entered during first period, which seemed to be an observation round. Johnson scored for the U.S.A at the 26th minute, giving little headache to their opponents, who finally equalized at the 34th minute due to Eriksson, Martensson and Weinhandl. This same line added another goal 2 minutes later, which gave “The Kronor” the Lead. In third period, Pavelski reduced the score at the 43th minute, relaunching the whole game. Swedish Team looked a bit stunned after that, but despite American better puck possession, Gunnarsson liberated his co-players and supporters at the 49th minute. Fourth and latest goal was given by the Swedes while the U.S had replaced their goalie in the very last minute. After 2 medals missed the previous years, Sweden can now be proud to come back home with a Bronze one.
Contents: After a first period without solution for the Russians blocked by disciplined U.S players, Dustin Brown took advantage of a clumsy opponent pass in the 24th minute to open the score. Then Kovalchuk surprised everyone shooting just after faceoff. The same Kovalchuk offered an advance thanks to his comrade Frolov who deviated his shot right to the cage. Two minutes before the end of 2nd period, Okposo gave the Americans a chance to stay in the game by scoring a new goal. Crazy third period was an exciting struggle for domination, when U.S.A commited penalty near the end allowing their opponents to score in powerplay, thanks to Radulov’s shot rebounded on Gorovikov, foiling Robert Esche’s attention. Today’s spectators have got what they paid for, enjoying watching offensive Russian players prevailing over Opportunist Americans who lacked a little something to head the ship for precious Finals.
Contents: Tonight spectators attended a fantastic game full of surprising reversals. Finland was first over-boosted, both on physical level and execution speed, exterting constant pressure. Though, no goal was scored on first part. Second period testified no more than 5 goals, 1 from Scandinavians (Niko Kapanen), 3 from USA (Brown, Oshie, Suter) within only 4 minutes range, and 1 last from Hyvonen. Victims of their recurrent penalties, Suomi Lions could not oppose enough success in front of galvanized Americans who did a great job, dominating second period and struggling to keep the score still in the third. Big up to Goalie Robert Esche and his reflex stop, which certainly offered the U.S their first semi-finals since 2004 in Prague.
Contents: Tonight, the Local Team had to face Nervous Americans, who kept on provoking the supporters’ favourite, especially in the first period. Julien Sprunger even suffered serious damage following an extreme bodycheck from Backes, who was immediately asked to leave the game. Despite tension in the air, Ambuhl opened the score in double powerplay for the great pleasure of Swiss Fans. Hainsey equalized in the second period, where Americans had calmed down a little and demonstrated faster skating skills, stronger involvement, excellent puck transmission and expert penalty killing. U.S domination was obvious at that point. Higgins even scored another goal which was later canceled for high sticking. Team Switzerland got a new advance when Lemm scored a second goal for his Nation. But Higgins succeeded foiling goalie Gerber's attention 4 minutes later. Then Hainsey shot a missile to the net in double powerplay, which reversed advantage in favor of the U.S. In the third period, the game kept on accelerating, and the White Cross Men exerted good pressure on the Yankees. Actually, they had no other choice than scoring 2 more goals within 20 little minutes in order to qualify. At the 50th minute, Switzerland started a 100mph counter-attack which ended to a goal scored by Pluss. The crowd was hysterical. The last 4 minutes that followed were perhaps the more intense moments of play in this competition so far. Unfortunately for hosting country, the Swiss did manage scoring another goal... only in overtime, which turned Latvia Happy, qualifying instead of Ralph Krueger’squad. Anyway, We vill all remember that Switzerland definitely had the potential to reach Quarter Finals. There was only missing a little chance.
David Vs Goliath Despite the big challenge of facing Team USA, free-minded French players had nothing to loose tonight. First goal by Okposo was scored in powerplay after 5 minutes, managing deflecting the puck from the edge of his stick while he was falling. Backes scored behind in double powerplay by standing just in front of the cage. In fact, Team France remained short-handed during more than half of the first period. Quessandier even took a 5' penalty. When statistics count 10 times more goal shots, then there is no question mark about the game outlet. In the second period, American acceleration confused the helpless Men in blue and Shannon easily entered the puck shooting from far. Ballard completed the score at the 28th minute. On the French side, Zwikel executed a reverse pass deviated in the cage zone to the net by Yorick Treille. The lack of agressivity of French defense let O'Sullivan increase the score at the 30th minute
During A new French powerplay, Lhenry assisted Bellemare from the back of arena, action which ended by a second goal for the Blue shirt. Although the French opposed a much better resistance after a while, a shot of Johnson in powerplay guaranteed a 6th goal for the Americans in the third period. The boards recorded a 41 shots to 16 proportion in favour of USA ! Obviously Team France was unfortunately not convincing. It missed the power, the speed and above all... the faith !
Contents: For the ones who like goals, a certain degree of uncertainty, and a lot of suspense, this was the game ! The Americans seemed playing quite easy against a Swedish defense sometimes clumsy. They looked more confident than their opponent under pressure of getting a victory since they had been beaten by Latvia. But this feeling of confidence did not last very long... Against all odds, the Vikings gave all their guts and prevailed during Overtime, after an unbelievable derby. Thas is what we call Swedish Sensation !
U.S.A Joined Big Scorers Family We might have expected a disaster for Austria facing USA internationally ranked #6, but after their game against Latvia, Americans had hesitated showing their best side to the whole World, and some doubt remained about U.S ability to dominate. While first period showed good play from both nations, Austria impressed by their skills in the second. The score was tight, after 2 American goals shot by Brown and Stafford and 1 Austrian goal shot by Peintner. Everything was still possible. At the very begining of third period, a shot given by O'Sullivan weakened severely Osterreich confidence, who was full of expectations until then. The Men in red from that point multiplied avoidable penalties and offered the U.S great opportunities in powerplay and even in double powerplay. Blake, Stempniak and Niskanen helped increased the gap and the game outcome became obvious.
Now that Americans got their Big Score game, they’ll have to prove they can worry higher level teams. Sweden is the next step on the list.
An Open Game Scoring the first goal 5 minutes after the starting faceoff, Latvia has surprised its opponent thanks to Vasiljevs (assist: Nizivijs). From this point, the game has never stopped being a continuous run from one side to the other of the arena and no one could really bet on the winner up to the end. U.S player Liles equalized 7 minutes later on a pass by Okposo. On the second period, Karsums gave a new advantage to its Purple and White Team by scoring with his partners, Ankipans and Sprukts. Then again, Stafford equalized for the Stars
and Stripes 5 minutes later, and finally Jonhson reversed the suspense by giving the U.S little superiority. Both teams had a very similar style of play, rushing forward with two or three attackers ready to get the puck into the net as fast as possible. From the third period, the Americans changed their strategy by building a constructive offense around the opposite cage, very close to what the Canadians had demonstrated yesterday against Belarus. Finally, these tactics were fructuous, enabling O'Sullivan scoring an ultimate goal (assist: Hainsey). Some might have said that the Americans didn’t show their best skills today, but curiously, Latvia has always been a dangerous opponent to them.
Pre-Competition PRESENTATION
Play United States of America National Anthem
Status : Potential Medalist (IIHF World Ranking: 6)
Competition : Team USA has the reputation to play with conviction and involvement. They have achieved getting the Silver Olympic medal in Salt Lake city 7 years ago, but still have to prove they can overtop the most serious opponents and reach the podium. One remembers for instance that last year, the U.S had been beaten by Finland during Quarter Finals (Score: 2-3) despite of their lead at the second period of the game. This year, during the preliminary round, after fighting against Latvia and Austria, Team USA will face Sweden, probably their biggest rival at this stage.
Pros : Strong fighting spirit and all-year practice experience Cons : . The majority of U.S selection compete for NHL Stanley Cup and are not necessarily used to playing together abroad, nor have time to train within international context . Some of the players won’t be able to participate as the NHL playoffs will occur during the World Championship . European arenas are a bit larger than American ones. It can always make a difference
Features : Team USA is known to play “hard” hockey, meaning the players use their physical skills to the maximum within their game strategy. As the northern-American rules are a bit more liberal than the international ones, they must generally adapt their strenght-based system and prove more technical in order to harass European best traditional teams. Team USA benefits a real youth since 12 of its players are 25 or less, also benefits a few veterans used to International Championships such as Keith Ballard, Jack Johnson, Ryan Suter in defense, forwards Jason Blake, Dustin Brown, Patrick O'Sullivan, Drew Stafford and Lee Stempniak or famous Robert Esche in the goal. The squad will nevertheless have to do without excellent goalies Thomas and Miller, who have performed a great NHL season this year. The only week point could be the lack of practice between partners who play in different teams all year.
Forwards : David Backes, Jason Blake, Dustin Brown, Nick Foligno (see video above), Peter Harrold, Christopher Higgins, Kyle Okposo, T.J. Oshie, Patrick O'Sullivan, Joe Pavelski, Ryan Shannon, Drew Stafford, Lee Stempniak, Colin Stuart, Colin Wilson
Defensemen : Keith Ballard, Zach Bogosian, Ron Hainsey, Jack Johnson, John-Michael Liles, Matt Niskanen, Ryan Suter
Goaltenders : Scott Clemmensen, Robert Esche, Al Montoya
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