Crosby shines as Canadians reach finale
of the best players in the world,” Canada defenseman Shea Weber said. “He’s able to impose his will, change the game at any time.”
Crosby will get his next opportunity to do that Tuesday, when Canada meets the winner of today’s Sweden-Team Europe semifinal in Game 1 of a best-of-three championship round.
He made it clear early that he intended to leave his fingerprints all over the Russian game, staking Canada to a 1-0 lead at 7:40 of the opening period with an outstanding individual effort.
He stole the puck from defenseman Dmitry Kulikov in the left circle in Russia’s end, then wheeled toward the net and, after throwing a series of dekes at Russian goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, flipped a backhander into the net for his third goal in four games.
The sequence was vintage Crosby, the confluence of hustle and hard work and skill.
That was, however, the only puck the Canadians got past Bobrovsky in the first 37½ minutes of play, as he single-handedly kept Russia in the game for much of the first and second periods.
“I thought he played a tremendous game,” Canada winger Corey Perry said.
Bobrovsky’s efforts were rewarded when teammates Nikita Kucherov and Evgeny Kuznetsov beat Canadian goalie Carey Price at 8:47 and 16:24, respectively, to give Russia a 2-1 advantage.
Just 72 seconds after Kuznetsov scored, however, Crosby set up Marchand for the first of his goals.
He swiped the puck from defenseman Andrei Markov in the right circle and slid a pass to Marchand, who was at the inner edge of the left circle and shoveled a shot past Bobrovsky.
“He always comes up big in the big games,” Marchand said. “He created that whole goal and ultimately, it did lead to turning the whole game around.”
Just 76 seconds into the third period, Marchand scored the game-winner after taking a feed from — who else — Crosby.
Indeed, the MarchandCrosby-Patrice Bergeron line has accounted for eight of the 19 goals Canada has scored in the tournament.
While Marchand’s second goal put Canada in front to stay, Perry and John Tavares beat Bobrovsky before the middle of the third, and the goal Russia’s Artemi Panarin scored with 8.2 seconds left in regulation did nothing but a little superficial damage to Price’s personal statistics.
And so Canada will enter the championship round with a 4-0 record, an almost unstoppable No. 1 line and a guy who seems intent on removing any lingering doubt about the identity of the game’s top player.
Canada coach Mike Babcock has worked with Crosby at a number of international competitions, and agreed Saturday night that his game has aged well.
“He knows how good he is, and he’s more patient with what he’s doing,” Babcock said. “He knows he’s going to have success over time.”
Canada is banking on it.