Swedes short-circuit U.S. hopes of repeat
Bob Motzko wanted to cover his eyes, but he knew he had to watch.
The United States head coach couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
The U.S. will play for bronze at the 2018 world junior hockey championship, its quest for backto-back gold ending harshly at the hands of Sweden on Thursday in a 4-2 semifinal loss.
“This one blindsided us because we felt so strong about how we were going and at the end of the tournament you get an adrenalin rush and a push,” Motzko said. “Ours was the other way. We had a vampire sucking it out of us.
“We’re so disappointed. We’re on the bench going, ‘This is not us. What’s going on?’”
The Americans fell behind 1-0 in the second period and then fell apart in the third as Sweden scored three goals in a span of two minutes eight seconds to go up 4-0.
Two of Sweden’s goals — the third and fourth — were short-handed and came on the same penalty.
While that stuck in Motzko’s craw, it was a sequence in the final minute of the second period that bothered him more.
Thanks to a heads-up pass by goalie Joseph Woll to Casey Mittelstadt, the Americans broke in on Swedish goalie Filip Gustavsson on a 3-on-0. Mittelstadt kept the puck rather than pass to Brady Tkachuk or Kieffer Bellows and was stopped on a backhand deke. Bellows then ran over Gustavsson, earning a penalty for goaltender interference.
A goal there and the game is tied. Instead, the Swedes held on to their lead and went on a power play.
Said Mittelstadt: “To be honest, I didn’t even really know it was a 3-on-0. Someone was yelling ‘Go!’ so I just went.”
The Americans did what a lot of teams do at this level when their backs are slammed up against a wall — they started to play. It was much too late as goals by Bellows and Tkachuk in the final 10 minutes brought only false hope.
Though Motzko respected the talent of a Sweden team that is 6-0 in the tournament, he did not give them much afterward.
“This is going to come off wrong and I know you are going to decipher this wrong,” Motzko said. “Sweden didn’t do anything to us that we were doing to ourselves. They were making long stretch passes, they did not have a lot of quality chances throughout. Their goalie made some critical saves. I don’t want that to sound negative toward Sweden at all, but that was not the team we had here the last handful of days.”