FLYERS AT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: AND THEN THERE WAS GUS
Not including Team USA spare goaltender
Cal Heeter of the Adirondack Phantoms, there were seven current Flyers-affiliated players who participated in yesterday's IIHF World Championship quarterfinals in Helsinki and Stockholm. Three of the four quarterfinal matches featured Flyers players. Come tomorrow's semis, there will only be one.
Quarterfinals Roundup
USA 8 - Russia 3: Team USA's roster may not be filled with big-name NHL stars, but the squad has been well-coached and the roster has been well-constructed to play effectively on the big ice surface under IIHF rules. The Americans have generally played a strong two-way game, with excellent team speed and an ability to create and finish transitional opportunities.
Yesterday, Team USA simply outhustled and outworked an individualistic Russian team. They scored four goals apiece against starter
Ilya Bryzgalov and replacement Semyon Varlamov, who played from the late second period onward. The Americans once again received stellar goaltending from John Gibson, who has outplayed Tampa Bay netminder Ben Bishop. To support their netminder, the Americans did a good job of staying out of the penalty box for two-plus periods and backchecked with gusto.
Russia's decisive loss yesterday was not a huge surprise. Despite the presence of recent arrival Alexander Ovechkin to supplement the likes of Ilya Kovalchuk and former NHLer Alexander Radulov, the Russian squad looked vulnerable in its bid to defend last year's gold medal. Team USA gave the Russians all they could handle in a preliminary round win for the Russians. After Russia got upended by France in a monumental upset, they were never the same again the rest of the tourney. The Russians got outworked and outgritted in a loss to Finland in its next game.
The aura of renewed invincibility the Russian team had built in winning 13 WC games in a row prior to the loss to France had been shattered to pieces before Team USA and Team Russia set foot on the ice for warmups yesterday. The American squad already knew it could skate with the Russians. The US side just needed to play with a little more discipline than they showed in the third period that got away from them in the first meeting.
Bryzgalov's performance in yesterday's game followed a pattern that has become rather commonplace in games he's lost during his Flyers career. He didn't allow outright soft goals -- they came off breakdowns in front of him and/or scoring chances created by superior hustle by Team USA -- but he looked bad on a couple of potentially stoppable opportunities in "momentum save" situations.
Paul Stastny scored goals two and added two assists yesterday. His linemate, Craig Smith, racked up five assists. David Moss notched his fourth tally at the tournament. Team USA also got goals from five different players who notched their first goal of the tourney: TJ Oshie, Ryan Carter, Alex Galchenyuk, Jacob Trouba, and Nate Thompson.
Bryzgalov was vulnerable any time the Americans forced him to move laterally. He committed himself too early or too late, and Team USA also took advantage of his tendency to have his stick well off the ice.
On the first US goal, which put them ahead 1-0 at the 11:53 mark of the opening period, the sequence started deep in Russian territory. The Americans outworked the Russians along the walls, cycling the puck down low and working it out of the corner. Finally Craig Smith shook free from Evgeni Biryukov, whirled and sent a backhanded pass out front. Stastny blew right past Ilya Nikulin and the took the feed in point blank range. There was nothing Bryzgalov could do to get over in time.
Less than a minute later, Oshie made it a 2-0 lead. Oshie skated into the right circle, accepted a pass from Tim Stapleton and ripped a shot that beat Ilya Bryzgalov under his arm. Although Oshie made a nice shot and had a good angle to shoot right near the faceoff dot, this was both a situational and technical save that Bryzgalov HAD to make to keep the deficit from ballooning to two goals.
Russia's Alexander Svitov got a goal back in the latter stages of the first period. The score held through a U.S. penalty kill and into the early minutes of the second stanza. At the 5:45 mark, Thompson restored the two-goal lead for the Americans.
On the play, Carter forced a turnover near the defensive blueline, and sped up the right wing on an odd-man rush with Thompson. Carter feathered a pass over to Thompson, who one-timed home a blast through a gaping target in Bryzgalov’s five hole as he moved laterally.
The Americans built the lead to 4-1 at the 17:31 mark. Once again, the play started with a Russian turnover -- this one an outright giveaway rather than an American takeaway. Evgeni Kuznetsov got lazy with the puck on his stick, and Stastny easily picked off the puck, sending it quickly to Smith in the right circle. The Russians never got their coverage set, as Smith had a wide passing line and Galchenyuk had a clear path to the net. Receiving the pass, Galchenyuk made Bryzgalov look foolish on a deke. The goalie bit hard, committing too early and taking himself out of position. From there, Galchenyuk moved laterally a stride and deposited the puck into a now-yawning cage.
That did it for Bryz. In came Varlamov, who fared no better as the team in front of him became desperate (NOT a positive thing) and reckless. However, a key juncture of the game took place early in the third period.
At the 1:33 mark of the third period, Ovechkin fired a laser beam that went into the back of the net and out again so fast that it was hardly visible to the naked eye at full speed. A brief replay delay ensued, and the goal was correctly awarded to the Russian side. Shortly thereafter, the Americans' Stephen Gionta took a roughing penalty.
Carter put a stranglehold on the game for the Americans at the 2:55 mark. Radulov whiffed on the puck at the offensive blueline, and Carter poked it away to speed up the ice with Thompson on a 2-on-1 counterrush. Carter elected to shoot and beat Varlamov through the five hold the restore the three-goal lead. Even though Russia's Alexander Perzehogin got the goal back with a power play tally, it was a wash on the scoreboard and Team USA was the side that came away with increased momentum.
As the final period approached the midway mark, Team USA put the game away with a three-goal blitz spaced over less than two minutes. By the second goal of the outburst, the Russians had stopped competing and basically quit on the game.
First, with 11:49 remaining in the game, Trouba re-established the three goal margin. With heavy traffic in front of Varlamov, the young defenseman fired a shot that found its way through the screen and past the goalie.
The next two goals came easily. With 10:04 left on the clock, Moss beat Varlamov between the legs with a snap shot from the deep slot. Just 11 seconds later, Stastny and Smith had free reign to attack the net, and Smith put a no-look pass on the tape for a slam dunk of a goal that made it an 8-3 final.
The Americans will now move on to play Switzerland in the semifinals. The Swiss have thus far gone undefeated in the tournament, knocking off Canada and Sweden once apiece and the Czechs twice. The Swiss team is no fluke, so the Americans had better come prepared to duplicate their performance from yesterday.
Switzerland 2 - Czech Republic 1: Team Switzerland has churned out the same game time and time again in this tournament. Sometimes they score more than they did yesterday, but the constant elements have been tight defensive zone coverages, strong containment through the neutral zone, excellent team speed, generally above-average goaltending and the ability to trigger the transitional game as soon a puck gets turned over by the opposition. Swiss teams of the recent past have had most of these elements in place, but generally lacked finishing ability.
If this sounds a lot like the elements that have characterized Team USA in the tourney, you would be correct. To date, the Swiss have done it even better than the Americans (who had a slip-up against Slovakia in the final game of the preliminaries).
In yesterday's quarterfinal, the Swiss beat the Czechs for the second time in the tournament. David Hollenstein got Team Switzerland out to an early 1-0 lead and the team showed patience against the Czechs for the rest of the day. When there was a breakdown, former NHL goaltender Martin Gerber (33 saves) made the saves.
Nashville Predators defenseman Roman Josi, who has been outstanding in the tournament, extended the lead to 2-0 midway through regulation. Josi drilled a shot past Winnipeg goalie Ondrej Pavelec for a power play tally.
Gerber took a shutout bid into the third period but the Czechs finally broke through on their fourth power play opportunity of the game. Flyers forward
Jakub Voracek triggered the sequence, which was finished off by little-used defenseman Zdenek Kutlak.
The Czech team was unable to find an equalizer. Voracek finished the tournament with a team-high seven points (one goal, six assists) in eight games.
Finland 4 - Slovakia 3: The Finns have only lost one game (to Team USA) in the tournament to date. The Slovak side battled back after falling behind 3-0 in the first period, coming all the way back to forge a 3-3 tie in the third period but the Finns forged ahead again and held on to win.
Former Chicago Blackhawks forward Petri Kontiola continued his dream tournament, notching his seventh and eighth goals and adding his seventh assist. Ex-Flyers defenseman Ossi Väänänen scored a rare goal to get the Finns off a lead in the opening two minutes of the game. After the Slovaks scored in the opening minute of the third period to tie the game at 3-3, Finland's Juhamatti Aaltonen restored the lead for good.
Michel Miklik, Andrej Sekera and Tomas Surovy scored for the Slovaks. Defenseman Branislav Mezei assisted on all three goals. Surovy's linemates, Tomas Kopecky and ex-Flyer Branko Radivojevic, also played strong games after the tough start.
Rastislav Stana finished with 21 saves on 25 shots. Victorious goalie Antti Raanta turned back 31 of 34 shots for Finland.
Sweden 3 - Canada 2 (SO): Regular readers of my blog now how much I dislike the shootout in general. When it comes its presence in international medal-round games, I despise the skills competition finale with every fiber of by being. Thank goodness the Stanley Cup Playoffs still has teams play until there is a legitimate winner.
At any rate, yesterday's match between Sweden and Canada was one of missed opportunities for the Canadians and just enough offensive output from the Swedes -- who have had trouble finishing their scoring chances in most of the tourney -- to take the game to the shootout finale.
Canada had issues with slow starts for much of the tournament, and came out with a game plan of trying to jump on the host team early. The Canadians outshot the Swedes by a 16-6 margin in the opening period but could not beat Buffalo goalie Jhonas Enroth.
A critical moment in the game took place with 4:08 left in the opening period. Vancouver Canucks defenseman Alexander Edler carelessly went knee-to-knee on a check against an oncoming Eric Staal, who was injured and had to leave the game. I don't think it was deliberate, but it was reckless and the major penalty and game misconduct (with a suspension for the semifinals likely to follow) were well deserved.
The Canadians lost two minutes off their five-minute power play when Andrew Ladd was sent off for hooking. However, Canada finally got on the board late in the carryover portion of the power play in the early stages of the second period. Steven Stamkos did the honors, notching his seventh goal of the tourney.
With Edler dispatched to the locker room and Sweden forced to play without its number one defenseman, the Swedes leaned very, very heavily on the tandem of
Erik Gustafsson and Henrik Tallinder to go up against the dangerous Canadian attackers.
At some junctures, the pairing was out there on almost every other shift. Gustafsson wound up playing a staggering 33:27 of the 70 minutes of game action (teams play a 10-minute overtime in the medal round before abandoning the hockey game to decide it by shootout). Tallinder finished with a game-high 33:34 of ice time. The duo continued its streak of having not been on the ice for a single opposing even-strength goal in any of the eight games the Swedes have played to date.
Canada took its 1-0 lead into the third period, frustrated to only have one goal to show for 36-17 shot advantage through 40 minutes.
In the third period, the Swedes (who were previously shut out by a 3-0 score) finally scored their first goal of the two matches against Team Canada. Nicklas Danielsson, assisted by the Sedin twins, knotted the game at 1-1 with a power play goal at the 5:44 mark. Less than four minutes later, Dallas Stars forward Loui Eriksson put the Swedes ahead for the first time with a power play goal scored on the heels of a
Claude Giroux crosschecking penalty.
As he exited the penalty box, Giroux was clearly disgusted at himself for the undisciplined penalty. That is sometimes when he's at his most dangerous. After being held pretty quiet for two-plus periods, the Flyers captain buckled down and asserted himself. It only seemed like a matter of time until he atoned for the penalty -- and the wait wasn't very long. A little over a minute after the Eriksson goal, Giroux re-tied the game at 2-2.
The game remained deadlocked for the next 19:10 of hockey. In overtime, Team Sweden attempted to buy a little extra rest time for its troops by making the risky move of switching goalies. Out came Enroth, in came Jacob Markström at the 1:18 mark of overtime. Tre Kronor coach Pär Mårts was no doubt hoping that the replacement goalie, who had been sitting for 60-plus minutes would not have to face any shots on goal and could get off the ice at the next stoppage barring a winning goal by Tre Kronor.
It didn't work out that way. To his credit, Markström had to make a pair of saves in a stretch of 2:19 before the Swedes were able to switch back to Enroth. Tre Kronor had three shots of their own in the overtime, including a pair by Colorado's Gabriel Landeskog before the game moved to the shootout.
In the skills competition, Giroux missed the net on the first attempt for Canada. Eriksson and Jordan Eberle then traded off goals for their respective teams before Mike Smith made stops on Henrik and then Daniel Sedin. Matt Duchene missed for Canada in between the attempts by the Sedins.
In international hockey, the shooting order reverses after the third round, and teams can repeat shooters if they so desire. Fredrik Pettersson scored for Tre Kronor after Daniel Sedin's unsuccessful attempt. Eberle was tabbed by Lindy Ruff for a second attempt and shot wide of Enroth's net to end the game.
Giroux finished the tournament with eight points -- three goals (2 PPG) and five assists -- in eight games. That ranked second on the team to linemate Stamkos (seven goals, 12 points), while the third member of Giroux's line, Winnipeg's Andrew Ladd, had three goals and three assists.
Flyers forward
Matt Read, who had a pair shots on goal yesterday and averaged 14:32 of ice time during the tournament, scored one goal (vs. Switzerland) and had a pair of assists (in the first game against Sweden) in Canada's eight games. Linemate
Wayne Simmonds scored a power play goal against the Czech Republic for his line point of the tournament.
Flyers defenseman
Luke Schenn, who served a one-game suspension after a boarding incident in the game against the Czechs, scored a goal in the first meeting against Tre Kronor and had a previous assist in the opening-game win over Denmark. In his seven games, Schenn averaged 16:28 of ice time (lowered by the time missed due to the game misconduct in the match against the Czechs) and was a plus-four with 27 penalty minutes.
Semifinals schedule on Saturday (times in EDT, US broadcast on NBCSN)
9:00 AM: Finland vs. Sweden (Finland is the "home" team entitled to last line change despite the game taking place in Stockholm)
1:00 PM: USA vs. Switzerland (Swiss get last line change)
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