Article Written By: Adam Wible
In a fast pace, defensive game, the U.S. came up short Friday in Sochi.
Jonathan Quick did everything he could between the pipes for the Americans, but came up short.
Quick made 36 saves, and let the one and only goal slip by. Jamie Benn redirected a pass from Bouwmeester, just two mintues into the second period, for the only tally of the game.
“They came at us with 20 guys [Friday night],” U.S. coach Dan Bylsma said. “They came at us with speed and for 60 minutes. That was a fast game. That was as fast a game as I think I’ve ever been a part of. There’s lots of speed out there, it was up and down the ice. We weren’t able to counter that. We weren’t able to match that as much as we’d like.”
Canada dominated every facet of the game Friday night. It helped to have stellar Carey Price in net for the Canadians, as he stopped all 37 shots. Canada advances to Sunday’s gold medal game, against Sweden.
The U.S. could not get anything going all night long. They kept it tight the first ten minutes of the first period, after that it was all Canada winning face off after face off, and dominating the offensive time of possession.
“We sat back. We were passive,” American defenseman Ryan Suter said. “You can’t play scared. I thought we sat on our heels and just didn’t take it to them at all. We had motivation. We just didn’t take it on the ice.”
Canada has been efficient all tournament long. Scoring one goal Friday and having just 14 in five games, Canada will carry a plus-11 goal differential into the gold medal game. The Canadians have allowed only three goals in the entire tournament.
“I think we’ve been good defensively the whole time,” Babcock said. “It’s hard to get real good players to be committed as our group is defensively, and yet we haven’t scored. No one seems to care. It doesn’t matter. You just want another opportunity.”
The U.S. will play Finland, tomorrow morning. (10 a.m. ET, NBCSN, CBC).
I expect the U.S. to come out with more determination then they did today. They should be able to handle the Finns for the bronze medal.
