Calgary Flames at World Championship: Gold/bronze medal games
By Ramina Shlah
It’s the final day of the World Championship! Three Calgary Flames members were playing in the gold and bronze medal games. Let’s check out how they did.
It’s a sad day for us. It’s the final day of the World Championship which means no more Calgary Flames hockey at all. Four members were playing at the tournament this year: Bill Peters coaching Team Canada, Mikael Backlund captaining Team Sweden, Johnny Gaudreau for Team USA, and David Rittich between the pipes for Team Czech Republic.
This was Peters’ second time as head coach for Team Canada, Backlund’s fifth time playing at the World Championship, Gaudreau’s third time at the Worlds, and Rittich’s first time.
During the quarter-finals, we knew that not all four members were going to make it to the semi-finals since Czech and USA were playing against each other. But three out of four did which isn’t bad. At the semis, Sweden demolished USA 6-0 and Switzerland beat Canada.
In the morning (for us North Americans) it was Canada and USA playing (again) for the bronze medal. In basically the first game that Canada actually got some decent goaltending, they unfortunately couldn’t get their offence going.
USA finally got on the board in the second period making it 1-0. Canada tied up the game with less than two minutes left of the second period. In the third period, with less than seven minutes to go, USA made it 2-1. Add two empty-net goals and this game finished 4-1. Curtis McElhinney made 33 saves.
But Sweden had a much better outcome, although it was quite nerve-racking. This game went to overtime, for what was quite an intense overtime, as you can imagine. In the dying seconds of OT, with about four seconds to go, Mikael Backlund passes it to Adam Larsson, and with about two seconds left, he shot it, but it hit the post. This one would need a shootout.
Next: Flames at IIHF - Semi-finals
With two goals for Sweden, they are back-to-back IIHF champions! And Backlund finally has his first ever Gold medal!