GARRIOCH: Team Canada will play for gold at the IIHF world championship after 4-2 win over Team USA
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Author of the article:
Bruce Garrioch
Publishing date:
Jun 05, 2021 • 32 minutes ago • 4 minute read • Join the conversation 
Team Canada celebrates after beating Team USA 4-2. Photo by Ints Kalnins /Reuters Article content
Team Canada didn’t have a very good start, but they could have a gold medal finish.
After dropping the first three games at the IIHF world championship in Riga, Latvia for the first time in the history of the tournament, Canada pulled off the upset Saturday afternoon by knocking off Team USA with a 4-2 victory and they’ll make a trip to the final Sunday.
Many wondered if this might be the worst Canadian team ever assembled when they dropped a 2-0 decision to Latvia May 21, a 5-1 loss to the Americans on May 23 and 3-1 defeat at the hands of Team Germany the next day. From there, Canada was able to get its act together under coach Gerard Gallant and was able to find a way into the medal round.
Canada advanced to the quarter-final because the result of the Germany-Latvia game to wrap up the round robin portion of the tournament was decided in regulation. Led by the line of Anaheim’s Adam Henrique, Ottawa’s Connor Brown and Calgary’s Andrew Mangiapane, Canada has gotten on a roll and they’ve received strong goaltending from Arizona’s Darcy Kuemper to get to the final.
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First, they knocked off Team Russia Thursday with a 2-1 victory in the quarter-final and then were able to dominate the Americans. Now, they will face the winner of the Germany-Finland semi-final Sunday at 1:15 p.m. ET on TSN.
“We believed we had a good team in there and we knew we had a lot of good players,” Brown told TSN’s Lindsay Hamilton after the victory. “Those first three games we just couldn’t score and then then tide turned. They’re going in for us, we feel confident and we’re having a lot of fun.”
One way it turned around for Canadian general manager Roberto Luongo and this group was the arrival of Mangiapane from the Calgary Flames after they wrapped up their season. He has played the role of hero by developing good chemistry with Henrique and Brown. Mangiapane scored twice in the win against the U.S. Saturday and also had the overtime winner against Team Russia.
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Henrique, Brown and Mangiapane were named the three players of the tournament for Canada as the club registered its 42nd win over Team USA in 49 games at the world championship.
“It’s been crazy tournament. We started off 0-3 in the tournament and now we’re just playing our best hockey. We’re riding the momentum,” Mangiapane told TSN. “We’ve got to one more game to go. It’s been great how we’re playing, great how we’re coming back and we’re just playing the right way. It’s awesome to see from our group. We’ve got to keep going.
“It’s crazy how we’ve competed to get back. We’ve been the underdogs every game and we just keep proving people wrong. It’s great to see all the character and all the battle levels. It’s just awesome. We’re not done and we’ve got one more game here to take care of business.”
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Brandon Pirri also scored for the Canadians and Justin Danforth put it away into an empty net. Sasha Chmelevski did bring the Americans to within a goal in the third period, but that was as close as they would get. Canada had a goal called back because an offside late in the second that would have given the club a two-goal lead.
Remember, this was pretty much the same Canadian team, with the exception of Mangiapane, that got beaten by the Americans in the round robin. The Americans are coached by Senators’ associate coach Jack Capuano.
“Their intensity from the start was probably a little higher than ours,” said U.S. captain Brian Boyle. “We were probably in our own heads a little bit too much early-on. We were trying to be perfect instead of playing hockey and playing hard. They took it to us for awhile and then we couldn’t catch up.’
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Boyle admitted playing for a bronze medal might Sunday might not be easy for Team USA. This was only the third time in the history of this tourney that Canada and the USA have faced off in a semi-final so this was a tough own for the Americans to swallow.
“This is a tough one. It’s been a long couple of weeks. We wanted this one and we just didn’t execute so we have to understand that we can be upset about this but we have to regroup,” Boyle added. “We’ve been here too long, we’ve sacrificed too much and guys are going playing through a lot. A medial is a huge thing so we need to make sure we’re ready.”
Canada won’t have a lot of time to enjoy this win and will have to prepare for the gold medal game Sunday.
“We’re playing with more confidence,” said Brown. “A couple of goals went in for us early. We played calm and we wanted the puck and we didn’t lay off the gas that whole third period. We played the majority of the third in their end and we were able to close it out.
“With back-to-back games you’ve just got to rest and recover. We’ll have 24 hours to get ready for this one and to just relax.”
bgarrioch@postmedia.com
Twitter: @sungarrioch
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