The Islanders were well represented this year at the IIHF World Hockey Championships in Denmark. Mat Barzal, Josh Bailey, Anthony Beauvillier, Jordan Eberle, and Ryan Pulock played for Team Canada, Anders Lee played for Team USA, and Dennis Seidenberg was the Captain of Team Germany. Six of those Islanders made it to the Semifinals.

Team Canada

Team Canada led the tournament with the top ranked penalty kill coming out of pool play with a 92.31% success rate. Mat Barzal was third in points for team Canada with 7 assists and 3 goals. Also a good stat to keep in mind is that Barzal is a +4 for the tournament after the round robin.
Canada finished third in group B behind Finland and USA. They lost a hard fought opening game against USA 5-4 in a shootout. After the loss they bounced back nicely having won their next three games, all against weaker opponents such as Korea and Norway.
Next, Canada fell to team Finland 5-1 and yet again they failed to show up against stronger opponents. They finished the tournament with wins over Latvia and Germany but by very close scores.
Canada squeaked by Russia in the quarterfinals 5-4 in overtime on a power play. Next up the Canadians face Switzerland who are fresh off of a win against the top seeded Fins. If Canada isn’t careful, they could get knocked out by Switzerland. And that is exactly what happened. The Swiss beat Canada 3-2, sending Canada to face the US in the Bronze medal game.

Team USA

Team USA has put on a very nice showing so far at this years World Championship. They finished pool play with a record of 6-1, with their only loss coming in their last game against the fins where they got out played.
Anders Lee is having a quiet tournament with only 3 goals and a +2. The biggest story isn’t really a shock with Patrick Kane leading the tournament in scoring with 8 goals and 11 assists in 8 games.
Coming into the tournament I was skeptical about how effective he would be but he has surely answered all of my questions about that. Another positive is the play of Keith Kinkaid. He was a backbone to this team between the pipes. He made a name for himself this year when he took the number one job in New Jersey when Cory Schneider fell to injury. He helped lead the Devils to a playoff appearance.
Team USA defeated the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals but then had a lackluster performance against Sweden in the Semis. They fell 6-0 to the Swedes and were set up to play Canada in the Bronze medal game.

USA Wins Bronze!!

Team USA bounced back nicely to take home the bronze with a 4-1 win over team Canada. With all the skill on the Canada roster I feel that they just didn’t gel together like team USA did and as a result played more as individuals. Team USA had a team effort and the Bronze medal was well deserved. Anders Lee scored the empty net goal to seal the deal for the US in the game.
Congrats to Anders and team USA for a great tournament and taking home the Bronze medal.

Drive4Five