Calgary Flames at World Championship: Quarter-finals
By Ramina Shlah
All four members of the Calgary Flames at the World Championship made it to the quarter-finals. Let’s check out how they did and who’s advancing.
The four Calgary Flames members at the World Championship advanced to the quarter-finals. Bill Peters coaching Team Canada, Mikael Backlund captaining Team Sweden, David Rittich between the pipes for Team Czech Republic, and Johnny Gaudreau for Team USA. We already knew not all four would be advancing to the Semis with USA and Czech playing against each other in the quarters, but 3/4 isn’t bad.
Canada played against Russia in a thrilling game. Kyle Turris gave the Flames the lead in the third period, putting them up 3-2 with about 13 minutes to go. Russia tied it a minute and a half later. Then Pierre-Luc Dubois made it 4-3 for the Canadians with less than eight minutes to go in the game. About two minutes later with a little over five to go in the game, Russia tied it again.
In OT, Ryan O’Reilly got the OT goal on the powerplay helping Canada advance. Canada, overall, played a good game, but they were again plagued by slightly poor goaltending. But Bill Peters is used to that.
USA beat Czech 3-2 to also advance. Rittich didn’t play in today’s game, so his three games at the tournament was all he’ll be playing this year. Gaudreau had one assist and one penalty in today’s game. Gaudreau now has one goal and nine points in eight games at the tournament.
In the afternoon was Sweden facing off against Latvia. Sweden finally got on the board in the second period only for Latvia to tie it five minutes later. Sweden managed to win 3-2 with Backlund going 7/15 in faceoffs today. Switzerland also beat Finland, which was probably the biggest upset at the tournament.
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Backlund and Gaudreau will play against each other in the Semis on Saturday as USA and Sweden face off against each other. Later, Canada and Switzerland will play. So we know that at least one Flame will advance to the gold medal game and at least two Flames will get medals.