Canada rallies over Russia, to face Sweden in gold-medal game
COLOGNE, Germany — Trailing by two goals with 20 minutes to play, the mood was tense in the Canadian room on Saturday at the world hockey championship. A light-hearted comment helped the two-time defending champions refocus and it paid off with a 4-2 comeback victory over Russia.
“When we walked into the room, there was a little tension,” admitted Canada coach Jon Cooper. “Then somebody blurted out, ‘It’s OK boys. We’ve got ’em right where we want ’em.’ It calmed the whole room down.
“We took a breath in the locker-room and went out and scored a power-play goal (right away). Right then, you could see the weight go off their shoulders. Then we played a heck of a third.”
The Canadians scored three more unanswered goals at Lanxess Arena to secure a berth in the gold-medal game. They will go for a third straight title today against Sweden, a 4-1 winner over Finland in the other semi. Russia will play Finland for the bronze today. Canada outshot Russia 19-4 in the final period and kept consistent pressure on goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Mark Scheifele halved the Russian lead 17 seconds into the frame and Nate MacKinnon tied it at 2-2 with 4:53 left to play.
Ryan O’Reilly scored the go-ahead goal with 3:02 remaining, and then Sean Couturier iced it with an empty-net goal with 67 seconds left.
“I think in the (second) intermission, we focused on getting a spark,” said O’Reilly. “We needed something to get us going, whether it was a couple of good chances or scoring a goal.”
Evgeny Kuznetsov put Russia on the board at 12:16 of the second period when he beat Canadian goalie Calvin Pickard after a pretty passing play. It was the first time in the tournament that Canada failed to score the opening goal.
Nikita Gusev made it 2-0 at 14:50 after another tic-tactoe effort in the Canada zone. He actually fanned on the shot but it still fluttered past Pickard.
In the third, MacKinnon set up a power-play goal by feeding the puck through to a wide-open Scheifele in the slot, who one-timed it over Vasilevskiy’s glove.
“Suddenly it was a different game,” Russian forward Artemi Panarin said of Canada’s first goal. “We got nervous, and that’s why we lost.”
MacKinnon tied the game when he swept the puck in by the goalfront, and O’Reilly banged in a loose puck moments later. O’Reilly then delivered a long pass to Couturier for the empty-netter that sealed the win.
“I’ve been extremely fortunate as a coach to be able to coach in the National Hockey League and be able to coach in the Stanley Cup Final,” said Cooper, who’s coaching Canada for the first time. “That was one of the greatest hockey games I’ve ever been a part of.”