Maple Leafs forward Phil Kessel and James van Riemsdyk each scored a goal in Team USA's 5-2 victory over the Czech Republic in Sochi on Wednesday.
Van Riemsdyk scored the game's opening goal, getting the puck past goaltender Ondrej Pavelec just 99 seconds into the first period. After Ales Hemsky got credit for a goal put in by USA defenseman Ryan McDonough, Dustin Brown and David Backes scored goals to give the Americans a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes.
Zach Parise scored to make it 4-1 midway through the second, as the veteran Czechs appeared to not have any gas left after defeated neighboring Slovakia on Tuesday.
Kessel tied Austria's Michael Grabner for the tournament lead with five goals with his breakaway tally 2:03 into the third period.
The victory guarantees that both Leafs wingers will remain in Sochi until the weekend, as the Americans will play either in the Bronze medal on Saturday or Gold medal game on Sunday depending on how they do against Team Canada on Friday.
Nikolai Kulemin's Olympic odyssey officially ended on Wednesday as Team Russia was eliminated in a disappointing 3-1 loss by Finland. The Leafs winger did not register a point in five games in Sochi and will likely return to Toronto to join his Leafs teammates for the stretch drive by the weekend.
Former Leaf Leo Komarov also is scoreless in four games with Team Finland, but made his presence known in the Finns win over Russia as he laid out Alex Ovechkin with a hard check in the second period.
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While understandably everyone was focused on the unexpectedly tight match between Canada and Latvia, the Maple Leafs hit the ice at the MasterCard Center in Etobicoke, ON for the first day of head coach Randy Carlyle's mini training camp.
According to the National Post's Michael Traikos, center Dave Bolland looked to be moving much better than before the break, skating with wingers Mason Raymond and Troy Bodie. Barring any unforeseen problems, the two-time Stanley Cup winner looks to be on target to return to the lineup when the Leafs resume their schedule on February 27th against the New York Islanders.
Bolland was unable to remain in Toronto and work with Leafs strength and conditioning coach Anthony Belza due to the club’s complete shutdown of hockey related activity, skating with the OHL’s London Knights during the hiatus.
Injured forwards Peter Holland, Carter Ashton and Trevor Smith also skated on Wednesday. Once the roster freeze has passed on February 23 and those players are removed from the injured reserve list, the Leafs will have demote two players to get down to 23 players on their NHL roster. The most likely candidates to be demoted to the AHL are Ashton and Holland, since neither would have to clear waivers to be sent down.
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