The much anticipated Team USA vs. Team Canada game for the World Cup of Hockey tournament kicked off Tuesday night. Team USA built their team to keep up and beat Canada. They are younger, faster and supposedly the best United States hockey players. How would this game end in a must win for the USA to advance? The game was win or go home.
The USA came out hot and scored the first goal in under 5 minutes against Canada’s goalie Carey Price. The USA was pumped for this game and tempers flared early, especially in front of the net.
Canada scored a quick goal to tie up the game and then on their second score the puck lucked in off the pants of Corey Perry. The USA challenged the call and lost the challenge. Usually, it’s assumed you need a stick to score but because this was a deflection it counted and the USA lost their only timeout for the game while still in the first period.
The USA let Canada score the third goal in the first period while they were making a change in personnel on the ice. The first period was all Canada. The USA came out hot, but Canada made sure to tilt the ice to their advantage.
The first period ended as exciting as it started with Canada’s goalie Price taking a dive to draw a penalty and then on the power play, Canada caused a penalty which led to a four on four that carried over for 15 seconds into the second period.
The second period began and much back and forth the exception being Canada continuing to tilt the ice in their favor against the US. Canada scored the 4th goal on Price midway through the second period and later went on a power play for a delay of game.
In the long change period, the US seemed to flutter more than flourish and made some mistakes that cost them the little momentum they were able to obtain. Canada dominated the period on shots as well as the extra goal.
In the third period, Team USA fell flat. They came out without the momentum and down by three goals. Canada continued to tilt the ice and play defense and made it difficult for Team USA to score. The US finally gained a little momentum a little too late. They scored one goal with roughly three minutes left in the game.
Canada easily won the battle of North America and now has bragging rights when it comes to hockey. Team USA failed to do what they were built to do, and that was to beat Team Canada. The US has now officially be eliminated from the semi-finals. This team was thought to compete with Canada and easily slide through to the semi-finals of the World Cup tournament. However, the United States only scored two goals and lacked offense.
So now Team USA must wait for the next World Cup. In defense of Canada, their 3rd line is better than most teams first and second lines. Hockey players are born and raised in Canada and therefore, Canada has the most talented team. Canada will likely win the entire tournament, and this will be such a treat for the home country team.
The game, in general, was a huge disappointment. Most thought this game would be much closer in scoring and going into the semi-finals. Maybe next time Team USA!