North America vs Finland recap, full highlights
- by Belinda Burton
- in Sport
- — Sep 29, 2016
Team North America is made up of the best 23-and-under American and Canadian players, a combination of speed and skill that captivates even the most old-school of hockey people.
Here are the key takeaways from Monday night's contest.
SWEDISH D-LIGHT: The all-world blue line led by Erik Karlsson, Victor Hedman, Anton Stralman and Oliver Ekman-Larsson has been as good as advertised for Sweden, which has allowed one goal in two games.
Team North America went out on its shield Monday night, coming just short in a furious comeback that ultimately ended in a 4-3 win for Russian Federation at the World Cup of Hockey.
Fellow Leaf Morgan Rielly also scored in the second for North America (1-1-0), which outshot Russian Federation 18-10 in the period despite being outscored 4-1.
Yes, North America is playing a different style than other teams in this tournament, Kuznetsov said.
North America opened the scoring at 5:03 on a power play.
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The game ended with 40 seconds of North American six-on-four play. I can't believe Gaudreau was able to get a stick on this deflection. A matter of inches was all that kept this game from going to overtime. McLellan said it was a maintenance day and expects him to play against Sweden, but if he cant then North America would have to dress 13 forwards and five defensemen. Russian Federation came away with a loss, and was desperate to get a win versus the under-24 entrant. North America still got a decent chance out of it, but they lost a golden opportunity to get a two-goal lead. "He's going to be a great player in this game for a long time". Vladislav Namestnikov, playing his first game of the tournament, picked up the rebound, shot it off the post, only to be kicked in by Murray. It was a fortunate bounce, but nothing like the one that benefited Namestnikov's Lightning teammate Nikita Kucherov less than a minute later.
And while Team USA's goaltending trio of Jonathan Quick, Ben Bishop and the Devils' Cory Schneider is one of the tournament's strongest, Team North America is starting Matt Murray, who only just backstopped the Penguins to the Stanley Cup. He had no one in front of him and immediately whipped a shot under Murray to give Russian Federation 2-1 lead. Murray's night came to end soon afterward, when he got pulled after the 4-1 goal from Vladimir Tarasenko.
Vladislav Namestnikov and Nikita Kucherov scored 50 seconds apart for Russian Federation after Matthews put the North America young guns ahead in the first period.
Those goals came on four consecutive shots spread out over that span.
WILL MURRAY PLAY: Murray vs. John Gibson is the decision in goal.
North America doesn't just belong in the elite tournament full of nearly 200 of the best players in the world; it might be one of the most skilled from top to bottom. Ekblad was replaced by Jake Trouba.
"Riles was probably our best player", said McDavid. Surely the Florida Panthers wouldn't want to see a player they recently handed a $60 million extension put at further risk of injury and if they haven't called already to voice their concern, they will. Except now he's in the KHL and he's 38, and Connor McDavid is 19 and skates like it. Moving forward, that will give him some extra confidence.
