The United States (with Dustin Brown and Patrick O’Sullivan) lost to Finland 3-2 in overtime in the quarterfinals of the World Championships. The U.S. trailed 2-0 heading into the second period but couldn’t pull it off. Friday’s semifinals will feature Russia vs. Finland and Canada vs. Sweden.
Here’s the update from up north on the World Championships. The United States, with Dustin Brown and Patrick O’Sullivan, will have a rematch with Finland tomorrow at 4:15 p.m. Pacific time. Tomorrow’s other quarterfinals feature the Czech Republic vs. Sweden, Norway vs. Canada and Russia vs. Switzerland. The semifinals will be played Friday, the bronze-medal game on Saturday and the championship game on Sunday.
On the less-fortunate side of things, Slovenia, with Anze Kopitar, finished last in its group and has been relegated to the lower division for next year’s World Championships.
Dustin Brown caused quite a stir at the World Championships yesterday. With the horn about to sound in the United States’ 3-2 loss to Finland, Brown drilled a Finnish defenseman behind the net and touched off a fairly major postgame brawl. The United States is playing Norway right now in the final “qualification” game. Quarterfinal games begin Wednesday.
This is the final day of the preliminary round of the World Championships. As far as the Kings’ interests go, the United States (with Dustin Brown and Patrick O’Sullivan) finished second in Group B and will start the “qualification” round with a game Thursday against the third-place team from Group C. That’s likely to be Slovakia (with Lubomir Visnovsky), but that group’s standings won’t be determined until today. Slovenia (with Anze Kopitar) finished fourth in Group B and dropped into the relegation round and will play Friday against the fourth-place team from Group C, which will probably be Norway.
Quite a game up in Halifax today. They’re still in pool play in the World Championships. Canada took a 3-0 lead early in the second period. USA pulled within 3-2 on Patrick O’Sullivan’s goal 3:09 into the second period, then within 4-3 on Dustin Brown’s power-play goal 5:18 into the third period. O’Sullivan assisted on Brown’s goal, and Brown had an assist earlier in the game. USA tied it 4-4 seven minutes into the third period and Canada scored the winner with 47 seconds remaining when Dany Heatley one-timed a wobbly pass from Ryan Getzlaf past Craig Anderson. Both teams will advance to the elimination round, which begins Thursday.
Slovenia, with Anze Kopitar, plays Latvia this afternoon and most likely needs a victory to avoid being dropped to a lower division next year.
Officially, that’s USA 5, Slovenia 1. Anyone else sense a trend in these World Championships? I wonder if one player has ever scored ALL of the goals for his team in a major international tournament… I suppose it’s possible. Anyway, Dustin Brown and Patrick O’Sullivan had assists for Team USA, which next has a big showdown with Canada on Tuesday. Slovenia plays Latvia on Tuesday and probably needs a victory to avoid being relegated to the lower division in next year’s World Championships.
The United States is playing Latvia right now in the World Championships. Dustin Brown scored 7:21 into the game to give the U.S. a 1-0 lead, and Patrick Kane just scored, 8:22 into the second period, for a 2-0 lead. By the way, the U.S. is wearing the old-school, 1980-style jerseys. No names on the back, which makes it a little hard to watch, but still very cool.
The IIHF World Hockey Championships opened today, and Canada beat Slovenia 5-1 in a pool-play game in Halifax. Anze Kopitar scored the only goal for Slovenia. Kopitar’s father, Matjaz, is an assistant coach for Slovenia. The United States, with Dustin Brown and Patrick O’Sullivan, plays Latvia at 4:15 p.m. Pacific time.
Dustin Brown and Patrick O’Sullivan scored goals today, as the United States beat Sweden 5-1 in a World Championships warmup game in Maine. The U.S. opens play in the World Championships on Friday in Nova Scotia.
In other housekeeping news…be aware that there might be some issues with the blog today or tomorrow. We’re switching servers, which ultimately will be a great thing but there is the possibility of some short-term headaches. Just wanted to make everyone aware in advance.
Also, make your vote count in the poll. I’ll be passing along the results to Dean Lombardi. Maybe he will bow to the will of the people. Probably not.
Dustin Brown and Patrick O’Sullivan have been selected to represent the United States in the World Championship tournament, which will be held May 2-18 in Canada. That’s a very nice honor for both players and represents how far they came this season, particularly O’Sullivan. Here’s the release from the Kings:
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