Calgary Flames at the World Championship: Semi-Final Recap

It’s semi-finals day! Unfortunately, we already know of one Calgary Flames player who won’t be getting any medals. But one will compete for gold!

It was a tough day Thursday for Johnny Gaudreau of the Calgary Flames and Team USA. They unfortunately lost in a rough 2-0 shutout loss against Team Finland in the quarter finals and won’t be competing for any medals at this tournament. Good news for Flames fans is that Johnny Gaudreau finished the preliminary round leading Team USA in goals (6) and points (11). He was also tied for first in goals among all skaters at the tournament, so yay Johnny!

He may not have a gold medal but he’ll always be the gold medal of our hearts. That made no sense. Moving on.

Team Canada had a successful quarter finals against Team Germany and they played in the semi finals this morning against Team Russia. Chad Johnson wasn’t in net (again), but let’s still see how this game went.

Calgary Flames

That game started off quite poor for Team Canada. They were scored on 12:16 into the second period which made the score 1-0 for Russia. This was the first time in the entire tournament that Canada was trailing. And to add insult to injury, Canada took a penalty 1:31 later. To which Russia took advantage of and scored a powerplay goal, now being up 2-0.

But some sort of spark happened in the third period and Canada scored a powerplay goal just 17 seconds into the period after a late second period penalty by the Russians. It would still remain 2-1 until a little under five minutes left of the game when Nathan Mackinnon got the game-tying goal. Yay! So we’re good now right? It’ll go to overtime?

Well, not quite. The Canadians weren’t quite finished yet.

With three minutes left of the game, Ryan O’Reilly, who earned the best player of Team Canada today, scored making it 3-2. Fast forward to the Russians taking out the goalie and getting an empty netter, making the final score 4-2.

Via CBC Sports:

“When we walked into the room, there was a little tension,” said Canada coach Jon Cooper. “Then somebody blurted out, ‘It’s OK boys. We’ve got ’em right where we want ’em.’ It calmed the whole room down.“We took a breath in the locker-room and went out and scored a power-play goal [right away]. Right then you could see the weight go off their shoulders. Then we played a heck of a third.”“I’ve been extremely fortunate as a coach to be able to coach in the National Hockey League and be able to coach in the Stanley Cup final,” said Cooper, who’s coaching Canada for the first time. “That was one of the greatest hockey games I’ve ever been a part of.”

Now it’s time for us freaking out on Twitter, because why not.

Next: Elliotte Friedman breaks down goaltending option for the Flames

Canada will most likely go with Calvin Pickard between the pipes again for the gold medal game tomorrow. But Chad Johnson still has the opportunity to win gold! Let’s get ready to cheer on Canada tomorrow and the lone Flame at the tournament.