Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Associated Press
TORONTO
The United States has been eliminated from contention at the World Cup of Hockey after a 4-2 loss to Canada on Tuesday night that featured a clinical, dominant performance by the tournament favorite.
The U.S. (0-2) couldn’t keep up with Canada’s talent, depth or speed in a game it needed to win to stay alive. Canada and Team Europe clinched spots in the semifinals, while the Americans are left to analyze what went wrong on the international stage yet again.
Matt Duchene scored twice and Corey Perry and Patrice Bergeron each had a goal for Canada, which got 34 saves from Carey Price. U.S. goalie Jonathan Quick stopped 30 shots, keeping the game from becoming even more of a blowout.
Ryan McDonagh and T.J Oshie scored for the U.S., which ended Price’s shutout streak at 228:41.
U.S. general manager Dean Lombardi said in June that his goal was to build a team that could beat Canada. This loss dropped the U.S. to 1-5 against the world’s top hockey power in best-on-best competition going back to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
The Americans still have one round-robin game left, Thursday against the similarly lame-duck Czech Republic.
On Tuesday night, the play was even more lopsided than the score indicated, with Canada grabbing control after McDonagh’s rebound goal 4:22 in. Counting the World Cup and Olympics, the U.S. has only two goals over the last 11 periods.
Sweden 2, Finland 0
TORONTO
Henrik Lundqvist made 36 saves and Anton Stralman scored his first goal of the World Cup of Hockey, helping Sweden beat Finland.
Loui Eriksson added an insurance goal into an empty Finnish net with 2.6 seconds remaining in the third.
With the win, Sweden (2-0-0) has a firm hold on the top seed in Group B while Finland (0-2-0) is facing long odds for advancing to the semifinals. Tuukka Rask, starting in the Finnish goal over Pekka Rinne, stopped 27 shots.