William Nylander won’t play for Sweden against Canada

“We get a different outcome from this game and it’s just another one-game elimination which is the tough part of this tournament”.

No question, the 18-year-old has high sky-high expectations for himself. “It sucks, but we have a potential returning team that could be pretty good next year”. Mitch Marner finally showed up and scored two goals, tying the game twice late in the third period.

“It was a really tight game, but I’m happy that we won, of course”, Finnish forward Kasperi Kapanen said. “But I will get used to (how hard it is to play in the tournament)”. He should be driving opponents insane with his ability to make something happen out of nothing.

Barely a minute into the second, Hickets was called for charging on Puljujarvi as he left his feet, again giving the best powerplay in the tournament a chance. Konecny put his one-timer away for a 1-0 lead. “We wanted to come here and win gold”.

Lowry spent the first 10 minutes of Wednesday’s practice talking one-on-one with Marner.

In spite of having a star-studded lineup, many of Team Canada’s headliners didn’t shine until the quarterfinals.

One player who never found his stride was Jake Virtanen.

When Canada selected this year’s team, it put the focus on skill and scoring.

The Canadian coach said they needed to take three minors or less. The Fins were able to crush Canada’s hopes at a gold medal; or any medal for that matter after completing a 6-5 win that left Canadians with more questions than answers.

“I think it’s a new dressing room, new team, new identity, new everything”, said Strome. “It’s a lot better competition and a lot better games”. A simplified game plan of “think less and shoot more” seemed to be just what the doctor ordered to get the highly touted Canadian offense going.

A year ago, the Canadians dominated like few other teams have in the past. Laine is third with 11 points, tied with US phenom Auston Matthews. The keys to today’s Team Canada win were to quit taking bad penalties while maintaining pressure on the opposition for a full 60 minutes. I know we had the country supporting us. “For us, it’s learning”.

“We talked about this tournament and experience and how critical it is”. Every team is a contender.

“We have an understanding now that it is a bigger stage”. “We were just playing a little too aggressive”.

Otters defenseman Erik Cernak and Slovakia lost 2-1 to Russian Federation on Thursday to finish fourth in Group B at 1-3-0-0, and set up a matchup with Group A victor Sweden (4-0-0-0) at 9 a.m. The other semifinal features Group B victor Russian Federation (3-0-1-0) and Group A fourth-place finisher Denmark (1-3-0-0) at 7 a.m. Maybe it is a matter of time.

The excitement continued in the third period with Pastrnak the difference maker for the Czechs. After all, Superman is not supposed to bleed, much less get knocked out in front of a sold-out crowd that was maybe 30% Canadian.

“I like the way he plays”, said Strome. “I hate it. Just got to learn from it and move on”.