It came down to the wire, but the two Canucks remaining at the World Hockey Championships have moved on to the semifinals. Now both Bo Horvat and Anders Nilsson will have a chance at coming home from Denmark with medals.
Technically, Canucks prospects Michael DiPietro and Elias Pettersson could win medals as well, but it’s out of their hands. DiPietro has yet to suit up for a game and is unlikely to do so, while Pettersson’s tournament ended with a fractured thumb. If their Canadian and Swedish teammates win, however, they’ll get some hardware to display on their shelves.
Canada and Sweden almost didn’t make it, however.
Bo Horvat and Team Canada drew a tough Russian team in the quarterfinals, led by Pavel Datsyuk. The 39-year-old Datsyuk led Russia with 10 points in 7 games in the preliminary round heading into Thursday’s game against Canada.
While Canada managed to keep Datsyuk off the scoreboard, Russia’s forward depth made up for it, scoring four times on Darcy Kuemper and pushing the game to overtime.
Canada opened the scoring in the first period on a Colton Parayko slap shot on the power play, his third goal of the tournament. Despite out-shooting Russia 12-4 in the first period, that was all they could get past Igor Shestyorkin, who was one of the best goaltenders in the preliminary round.
After Ryan Nugent-Hopkins made it 2-0 with another power play goal, Russia pushed back hard. They had 15 shots in the second period, tying the game with goals from Ilya Mikheyev and Alexander Barabanov.
Mikheyev’s goal came on a complete defensive lapse in front of the goal by Canada. Kyle Turris and Darnell Nurse got caught watching Artem Anisimov with the puck and lost track of their checks in front. Mikheyev was wide open for Anisimov’s pass.
Barabanov’s goal can be pinned on Jordan Eberle, who was supposed to be checking Barabanov in the slot. Tellingly, Eberle was benched for the third period.
Canada and Russia traded goals in the third period. Kyle Turris took advantage of Nikita Nesterov losing his footing on a backcheck and ripped a one-timer past Shestyorkin. Then Sergei Andronov tipped in a shot from the boards to tie it up. Pierre-Luc Dubois got the lead back by out-battling Ilya Kablukov for a rebound, but Anisimov responded with a brilliant backhand from a bad angle that Kuemper likely should have stopped.
In overtime, however, an uncharacteristic penalty from Russia gave Canada a golden opportunity and they took advantage. Russia was the least penalized team in the tournament, taking just 20 minor penalties in 8 games, but the last one was the most costly.
On the 4-on-3 power play, Mcdavid slipped a pass through the legs and under the stick of Russia’s top defenceman, Bogdan Kiselevich, finding a gap where they didn’t seem to be one. The pass was right on the tape of Ryan O’Reilly and he tipped it past Shestyorkin.
Horvat played limited minutes on the fourth line, finishing with 10:49 in ice time, but he had a couple standout moments. While he lost the puck on a scoring chance in the first period, he nearly scored on another in the third period. While going for a rebound, Kiselevich tried to throw a hit on Horvat, but the stocky Canuck braced himself and knocked Kiselevich to the ice. His shot got under the arm of Shestyorkin, but the goaltender managed to squeeze it there and prevent what could have been the game-winning goal.
The power forward move seemed to endear Horvat to head coach Bill Peters and he got a couple more quick shifts afterwards in the third period.
In the semifinals, Canada will face the surprising Swiss team that upset Finland. Switzerland can’t be taken lightly and have a bevy of NHL players, including Roman Josi, Nino Niederreiter, Sven Andrighetto, and Timo Meier.
As for Sweden, they were supposed to have an easier matchup in the quarterfinals after beating Russia to win their group. They faced the underdog Latvian squad, a team that doesn’t have a single current NHL player on their roster.
Latvia, however, has proven throughout the tournament that they can’t be counted out, taking Canada and USA to overtime and winning crucial games against Germany and Denmark. In the quarterfinal, they gave Sweden everything they could handle and nearly tied the game in the final minutes to send it to overtime.
It was a rollercoaster game for Anders Nilsson, who was perfect on every tough test he faced, but allowed two ugly goals that kept Latvia in the game.
The first period went exactly how Latvia wanted it: essentially nothing happened. Shots were 4-3 for Sweden. That kind of low-event hockey plays right into Latvia’s hands.
Sweden opened things up in the second period, attacking the net with a little more reckless abandon, and it paid off. Filip Forsberg beat a screened Elvis Merzlikins. Bob Hartley, Latvia’s head coach, challenged the goal, believing Viktor Arvidsson was in the crease, about which IIHF hockey is a little more strict. The goal stood, however, and Latvia losing their challenge came into play later.
Latvia tied the game not long after when Nilsson was beat cleanly by a wrist shot off the rush by Teodors Blugers. After the tying goal, the wheels started to come off for Sweden, as they took two quick penalties to give Latvia a nearly two-minute long 5-on-3.
Nilsson, however, was superb during the two-man advantage, making several key stops. Latvia had two other power plays besides the 5-on-3 in the second period and out-shot Sweden 17-15, but Nilsson stood tall and kept the game tied 1-1.
Latvia seemed to run out of gas and Sweden out-shot them 15-4 in the final frame. Goals from Arvidsson and Oliver Ekman-Larsson gave Sweden a 3-1 lead.
Sweden’s third goal came on a scrum in front of the net. Adrian Kempe picked the puck out of the pile and smartly passed it to Ekman-Larsson instead of just jamming it back into the mess, and that gave Ekman-Larsson a wide open net. In the scrum, however, Merzlikins was unable to get back to make a save. If not for the unsuccessful challenge earlier, Hartley could have challenged for goaltender interference.
Latvia didn’t give up, however, and another weak goal on Nilsson gave them life. Off a failed Swedish breakout, Rudolfs Balcers threw the puck towards the net. Nilsson didn’t pick the puck up off the stick, went down into his butterfly, and saw the puck sail over his glove.
That was all Latvia could muster, however, though they created the scoring chance they were looking for after pulling their goaltender. With a minute left, Ronalds Kenins had a chance at an open net after a great pass by Balcers, but his one-timer hit one of several legs between him and the net, and didn’t get through. The camera caught Kenins clearly frustrated at the bench, slamming his stick against the boards.
It was an impressive World Hockey Championships for Latvia, as they pushed three of the toughest teams in the tournament — Sweden, Canada, and USA — to the edge, but couldn’t quite find an upset in their bag of tricks.
Sweden now faces the high-scoring Team USA, who lead the tournament in goalscoring. It remains to be seen if Nilsson will get the call after his blunders against Latvia. He still leads the tournament in goals against average and is second in save percentage with a .943, but Sweden has the option of turning to Magnus Hellberg, who has a .938 save percentage.
Elsewhere at the World Hockey Championships…
What a bizarre tournament for Finland. They crushed Canada 5-1 and USA 6-2 during the preliminary round, but lost 3-2 to both Denmark and Germany. In the quarterfinals, they were the favourites against Switzerland, but once again lost 3-2 against a weaker opponent.
The Carolina Hurricanes’ Sebastian Aho was incredibly good for Finland, tallying 9 goals and 18 points in 8 games, and Teuvo Teravainen was not far behind with 14 points. They just couldn’t solve Swiss goaltender Leonardo Genoni, a 30 year old who has spent his entire career in the Swiss league.
