Team Europe upsets Sweden, faces Team Canada in World Cup of Hockey

“We played a patient game thinking it was going to pay off in the end and it didn’t”, Daniel Sedin said after a 3-2 overtime loss to Team Europe in Sunday’s semifinal. The worrying goal for Sweden came in the opening seconds of the third, as Tomas Tatar put Europe up 2-1. If Sweden wants to advance with a chance at winning the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, they know they have to get through a tough, proven opponent in Team Europe.

Canada, which has won 14 consecutive games in worldwide competitions, was a popular choice to win the tournament before it began, and facing a team many expected to be dissolved and forgotten after the round-robin portion of the World Cup isn’t going to change that.

Wins in their first two games over the USA and Czech Republic set them up nicely to advance to the semifinals where they would upset Sweden in overtime.

TORONTO (AP) – Tomas Tatar stuffed in a shot, triggering quite a celebration.

Crosby opened the scoring, assisted on two Brad Marchand goals and led Team Canada to a 5-3 win over Russian Federation to advance to the World Cup finals.

As Swedish goaltender Henrik Lundqvist lay on the ice with his head down, the Europeans huddled up in the right corner and bounced on their skates in jubilation.

“I’m just so pleased that these peripheral countries in the world of hockey have had an opportunity to compete with the best in the world for the first time in their life (as one)”, Krueger said.

The table is nearly set for the final round of the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

Carey Price made 31 saves for Canada, which will face either Europe or Sweden in a best-of-three final that begins Tuesday night. “You have to play the games”. There’s no kidding ourselves – countries like Norway wouldn’t stand a chance in this tournament. And we do feel the pressure and I am sure the Canadian team feels the pressure as well.

“Play disciplined, play smart, shut down their top guys, try and score on the best goalie in the tournament and on and on”, Kopitar said of the challenges Canada presents. He made 42 saves, numerous acrobatic variety.

Erik Karlsson and Nicklas Backstrom responded for Sweden (2-0-2) while Lundqvist stopped 28 shots. He had a shot to prevent both of Tatar’s goals. And now he’s got a collection of European players (trying to beat Canada).

The Gaborik goal set the table for some drama entering the third period.

Twelve seconds into the third, Lundqvist fell off balance while failing to glove a shot from Tatar and the Detroit Red Wings forward was there to flip the puck back into the net.

“I had a little bit more time than you typically get”, Crosby said.

Sweden’s Erik Karlsson tied it with 4:32 left in the third, setting the stage for Tatar’s overtime victor. I was hoping this would happen and I knew that we had strong players, accomplished in the National Hockey League, winners on worldwide level, winners of Stanley Cup.

Some critics thought it was a joke to put a team together with players from eight nations instead of picking two of them, perhaps Slovakia and Switzerland, to round out the eight-team tournament.

“You’re going to have some dreams that some people, they might say are not realistic”, Europe goaltender Jaroslav Halak said after his 37-save performance, “but we created a story right now and we just need to keep going”. Known as “The Punch-up in Piestany”, the Russians and Canadians had a ferocious bench-clearing brawl in the second period in the Czechoslovakia tournament.

No matter what happens in today’s matchup between Team Europe and Team Sweden, the Tampa Bay Lightning will have at least one player remaining in the competition heading into the final round; Lightning captain Steven Stamkos.