MATCH NOTES: Canada v. United States (May 23)
Television: RDS | RDS Direct
Following a disappointing curtain-raiser setback, Canada’s National Men’s Team continues their run in the preliminary round of the 2021 IIHF World Championship and tries to bounce back against the United States on Sunday.
LAST MATCH OF EACH TEAM
Canada suffered a rare shutout loss, falling 2-0 to the tournament hosts, despite a 38-shootout performance over Latvian goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks. This is Canada’s first loss in 13 games against Latvia in the tournament’s history. Goalkeeper Darcy Kuemper made 15 saves, but his team failed to register the score. This is only the seventh time that the Canadiens have not scored a goal in a game since NHL players entered the tournament, in 1977.
The Americans challenged the reigning gold medalists in their opener, but scored just one power-play goal by Jason Robertson and fell 2-1 to Finland. Cal Petersen made 27 saves for the United States, which had a slim advantage of 30 shots on goal against 29 for the Finns.
LAST MEETING BETWEEN THE TWO TEAMS
The last clash between the North American rivals was in the last game of the 2019 Worlds preliminary round. Pierre-Luc Dubois and Kyle Turris hit the target in the first nine minutes, giving theirs a more than enough, consolidated lead. by Jared McCann in the second period. Matt Murray blocked all 28 shots aimed at him, and Canada won 3-0.
Canada finished first in Group A and left Slovakia with a silver medal, while the Americans lost 4-3 in a close match against Russia in the quarterfinals to finish seventh.
TO MONITOR
Who will contribute to the offensive for Canada? The team’s most prolific NHL scorer is Connor Brown, who has 21 goals in 56 games with the Ottawa Senators this season, and Justin Danforth has scored 23 times with the Podolsk Vityaz in the KHL. . However, despite 38 shots on goal against Latvia, quality scoring opportunities in the attacking zone were scarce.
The unknown certainly has something to do with it – the Canadian squad only had three practice sessions before their opener, and most of the players had never played together before. However, the short duration of the IIHF World Championship leaves little time to improve.
FAMILY FACES
As always in a Canada-United States duel at the Worlds, there are many experienced players from the NHL (and the university circuit), and a handful of teammates compete on the international stage.
Ducks d’Anaheim – Comtois (CAN), Henrique (CAN), Stolarz (USA)
Coyotes de l’Arizona – Bunting (CAN), Garland (USA), Hill (CAN), Kuemper
(CAN)
Sabres de Buffalo – Miller (CAN), Thompson (USA)
Flames de Calgary – Mackey (USA), Mangiapane (CAN)
Blue Jackets de Columbus – Danforth (CAN), Foudy (CAN), Robinson (USA)
Kings de Los Angeles – Anderson-Dolan (CAN), Moore (USA), Petersen (USA),
Roy (USA), Vilardi (CAN), Walker (CAN), Wolanin (USA)
Sharks de San Jose – Chmelevski (USA), Donato (USA), Ferraro (CAN), Labanc
(USA)
University of Michigan – Beniers (USA), Power (CAN)
RETROSPECTIVE
While rivalry between neighboring nations has intensified in recent years at the Olympic Winter Games and the IIHF World Junior Championship, the scales are clearly in favor of Canadians in IIHF World Championship history.
Canada has won 41 times in 47 games since 1931 and has lost just two games in regulation: a 4-3 loss in the preliminary round in 1985, and a 4-1 loss in the medal game. bronze in 2018. The latter is the most recent clash of a total of just four games in the playoff round: Canada defeated the United States in the quarterfinals in 1995, the Americans won 4-3 in overtime in 2001, and Ryan Ellis had signed the winning goal early in the third period
to give his team a 4-3 victory in a hard-fought semifinal match in 2016.
All-time record: Canada leads 41-6 (US leads 4-1 in PROL or VG) Goals for Canada: 235 Goals for US: 92
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