Sedins relishing chance for major title at World Cup

Finland, to their credit, came out ready to play despite having nothing to play for. Meanwhile Johnny Gaudreau got a chance to avenge that missed penalty shot with a converted breakaway at 13:57 before Nicklas Backstom cut the lead again at 16:28 in the first. The teams in this tournament are way too good to focus all your energy on one rival. Captain Alex Ovechkin passed from the slot, feeding linemate Vladimir Tarasenko for an easy tap-in from the top of the paint. Then it was KHLer Ivan Telegin, who came up with a big goal on a power move to the net to make it 2-0.

Vincent Trocheck scored just over a minute later to make it 2-0. He put North America back up by two with just over six minutes left to play in the period.

Canada is now a powerhouse as it prepares to host Russian Federation in Saturday’s semifinal of the World Cup of Hockey, winners of 13 straight best-on-best games dating back to 2010. The group was four years removed from a seventh-place disaster at the 2006 Games, trying to reclaim gold on home soil in Vancouver. “There’s some pretty good players coming through for Canada”. It’s just hard to imagine anyone beating Canada in two of three. He was without a doubt one of the best players on the ice Wednesday. It’s always compelling to see those two head-to-head.

West Kelowna’s third consecutive win improved its overall record to 4-1, tied with the Penticton Vees for top spot in the Interior Division.

Team North America coaches Todd McLellan, Dave Tippett, Gerard Gallant and Jon Cooper have stood behind the bench for more than 2,200 National Hockey League games. As a coach that means you go out and take care of what you can control, because scorebaord watching sucks.

All but two players have at least a point for Canada thus far.

Canada have an vast set of defensemen, all accustomed to dealing with the likes of Ovechkin and Malkin, so maybe the lesser known skills of Vadim Shipachyov and Evgenii Dadonov – who teamed up very well with rookie sensation Artemi Panarin prior to the tournament – will be able to stifle the maple leaf-sporting blue liners. Jonathan Drouin, Jack Eichel and Brandon Saad were also put in “time out” to think about what they did, while the rest of North America was visibly exhausted, making fatigue mistakes.

US coach John Tortorella and players implied that the team would’ve had a different look if American players 23 and under were eligible for selection and not bound to Team North America. “They’ve watched some really good hockey in September and that doesn’t happen very often”. Sweden will next play Europe, who finished second in Group A. North America scored 11 goals in three games against the best players in the world. But, as he showed time and time again, he’s also the present.

You wouldn’t think it would be possible to get Canada-Russia on a Saturday night and be disappointed, but here we are.

He looked one way and looked the other way and all he saw was Team North America jerseys. It doesn’t sound like it’s much fun to play, either.

A win for Russian Federation in the preliminary round finale against Finland on Thursday would seal a date with the Canadians.

During the tournament, Carey Price and Corey Crawford have been given time between the pegs.

The same might be true of Rielly, who became North America’s top defenceman after Ekblad suffered an upper-body injury in the first game against Finland.

“In my opinion they have a tremendous and bright future ahead of them in USA Hockey”, McLellan said. It did so by playing quite possibly the most exciting hockey of any team in recent years. The core that led Finland to multiple Olympic medals – Selanne, Timonen, etc. – just isn’t there anymore.

No one knew how competitive this team would be.

An inch to the left and this game could’ve had a much different outcome. Even with Patrick Kane, Joe Pavelski and Zach Parise on the roster, the Americans failed to generate scoring chances and general manager Dean Lombardi and coach John Tortorella had to answer for why they chose size and physicality at the expense of more skill.

Brandon Saad is the old man of the kids, as he will be turning 25 by the 2018 Olympics.