How could Russia lose to “such a Canada”? Just ask the United States and the Canadians are already in the World Cup final!
“Maple” almost flew away after the group stage, and now they will fight for world championship gold medals in Latvia.
The 2021 World Championship in Latvia comes to its logical conclusion. Tomorrow, the winner of the tournament will be determined, and today the four remaining teams on the board were to compete for the right to take part in the deciding match. In addition, all teams that have reached the semi-finals are representatives of the same group. The USA, Finland, Germany and Canada met in the preliminary round, and it is the representative of this quartet who will leave with gold.
In the first semifinals, teams from the United States and Canada settled the relationship. In the North American derby of the group stage, the Stars and Stripes proved much stronger than their rivals, scoring five goals and conceding only once. After this meeting, the discourse on the possible absenteeism of the “maples” in the playoffs was reinforced. The Canadians really started the tournament indistinctly, but pulled off a good shot.
Today on the ice of “Arena-Riga” has become completely different from Canada which failed two weeks ago. They were already a different team – confident, sporty and cocky and hungry for more victories. She was the one who was meant to open an account within two minutes of the departure whistle. The pupils of Gérard Galland in great force encountered a rapid attack. Sean Walker, who dragged the puck into half the field, was unable to break through Calvin Petersen, but Brandon Pirri was the first to finish, and the American goaltender was unable to do anything with his pitch.
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The whole first period went offensively. The teams set a high pace and each of them was also close to the next goal. However, at the end of the twenty minutes, a slight advantage was on the side of Jack Capuano’s charges, which turned into effective action. After a blue line click executed by Christian Volanin, the puck met Colin Blackwell’s stick, who correctly played on the Canadiens’ goal patch, and jumped into the net from it.
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In the second third of the game, the teams continued to play actively. More persistent were the “maples”, and soon this was reflected on the dashboard. Andrew Manjapane took the puck out outside the goal, closed it with his body and rolled it over Connor Brown, who was at the gate. He pushed the game projectile between Petersen’s shields, and Manjapane finished it off in the gate, having managed to get past the American defender who attempted to interfere.
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By the way, the Calgary forward is one of the reasons for the transformation of the Canadian national team. He only made his tournament debut in Game 4, not having time to make the three starting games, and since then he has never left the venue without scoring points. It was his puck that earned the Maple family a victory over the Russian National Team in overtime in the quarter-finals.
The teams played in a very disciplined manner, and any withdrawals could seriously affect the course of events. It almost happened in the middle of the second period. For the first time, the Canadians are gaining a power play and even realizing it: the Anaheim Comtois – Henrik link is working. However, Jack Capuano requested a video replay which showed a Canadian player was offside entering the zone. Naturally, the referees, who also represented the two countries participating in the match, canceled the goal.
It was already impossible to cancel the Canadiens’ next goal. The teams were silent until the break, and less than a minute after leaving the locker room, the advantage of “maple” had doubled. The Americans created a dangerous moment at Darcy Kemper’s gate and nearly scored, but missed a quick counterattack by the same Brown and Manjapane. The first with a magnificent transfer brought the compatriot one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and he graciously took the opportunity.
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The Stars and Stripes had no intention of surrendering without a fight and responded two minutes later. The second game in a row was scored by Alexander Chmelevski, this time the fastest of all, who found himself after the commotion at the gates of Kemper.
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For a while, the game calmed down, but it didn’t become the pre-storm calm. The Americans eliminated the keeper two minutes before the end of regulation time, but their assault was unsuccessful, but the “maples” covered the opponent in their own zone and threw them into an empty net.
The United States team joins Russia in the club of unexpected defeats against the Canadians. Now “that kind of Canada”, who came to Riga with the not-strongest team, will perform in the final, where he will meet the winner of the match between Finland and Germany.
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