The Canadian Press
Carol Schram
COPENHAGEN–Canada came home without a medal for the first time in four years after falling 4-1 to the U.S. in Sunday’s bronze-medal game at the world hockey championship.
“Coming here, we expect gold and expect to compete for gold and when you don’t, it’s disappointing,” said alternate captain Ryan O’Reilly, who was playing in his sixth world championship.
He won two gold medals and a silver in the past three years.
“We still wanted to beat the U.S. and prove we’re the better team, but we just didn’t have the jump,” he conceded.
“We gave them a lot.
“Overall, it’s a disappointing tournament,” O’Reilly added. “It feels like a waste of time.
“You want to come here and compete and have a chance to win, and you don’t.”
Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored the lone goal for Canada late in the second period while Curtis McElhinney made 33 saves.
Chris Kreider scored twice for the U.S. while Nick Bonino had the eventual game-winner with O’Reilly serving an interference penalty with 6:39 to play in the third period.
Anders Lee added an empty-net goal with 2:45 to go.
Keith Kinkaid made 24 saves for the win.
Canadian coach Bill Peters went back to McElhinney in net after Darcy Kuemper took the loss in Saturday’s 3-2 semi-final defeat to Switzerland.
Kuemper also was in gaol when Canada fell 5-4 to the U.S. in its tournament opener back on May 4.
In his four preliminary-round appearances, McElhinney recorded three wins and a loss, with a 1.30 GAA and .931 save percentage.
McElhinney kept his team in the game against an American team that generated the lion’s share of the game’s offence through 40 minutes, outshooting Canada 27-17.
Peters also switched up his skaters, dressing defenceman Thomas Chabot in place of Ryan Pulock, putting young speedsters Mat Barzal and Anthony Beauvillier on a line with O’Reilly, and moving Bo Horvat onto a new-look energy line with Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Kyle Turris.
“I thought the game was a little bit choppy,” said Peters. “I thought the game was going to look a little bit different.”
Playing their third game in four days, both teams looked flat as they tried to rally to earn bronze after disappointing semi-final losses–a 3-2 defeat by the underdogs from Switzerland for Canada and a 6-0 shutout by Sweden for the U.S.
“I think both teams wanted to play today but they wanted to play a later game,” noted Peters.
Sweden won the gold medal with a 3-2 win in a shootout over the Swiss.
