Thursday, January 3, 2013

U.S. Juniors Top Canada, 5-1

College players account for all five goals; will play for gold Saturday.

U.S. Juniors Top Canada, 5-1
Jake McCabe’s two first-period goals matched his season total with the Badgers.

Jake McCabe of Wisconsin and Johnny Gaudreau of Boston College each had a pair of goals as the U.S. National Junior Team dispatched Canada, 5-1, Thursday to earn a spot in the gold-medal game at the 2013 IIHF World Junior Championship in Ufa, Russia.

Team USA will face the winner of the other semifinal, Russia vs. Sweden, at 8 a.m. ET on Saturday (NHL Network-U.S., NHL.com, TSN-Canada) in search of the country’s third gold medal at the WJC (2004, 2010).

All five American goals were scored by NCAA players, who make up 14 of the 22 players in the U.S. lineup. McCabe, the team captain, scored the first two goals of the game with Gaudreau and Harvard freshman Jim Vesey adding the other tallies. All three of those players also added assists in the game.

Revenge game

The U.S. had lost to the heavily favored Canadians in the preliminary round, 2-1, but took command of the semifinal game from the start. McCabe’s first goal came just 7:18 into the contest on a play set up brilliantly by Miami freshman Riley Barber. Minnesota’s Mike Reilly also earned an assist on the goal.

McCabe scored again less than 10 minutes later to give the U.S. a 2-0 first-intermission lead.

Gaudreau and Vesey scored in the second period to build the lead to 4-0 and chase Canada’s starting netminder, Malcolm Subban.

A shorthanded goal for Canada cut the lead to 4-1 before Gaudreau’s insurance tally finished the scoring. The U.S. held a 42-34 shot advantage.

Gaudreau – who helped lead Boston College to the national championship last spring – has a tournament-leading seven goals, all in the last three games.