U.S. falls to Canada in pretournament action
Schneider 20 saves; Palmieri 1 shot, 2 blocks
OTTAWA -- John Tavares scored twice, and Corey Perry, Drew Doughty and Steven Stamkos each had two assists for Team Canada in a 5-2 win against Team USA in a World Cup of Hockey 2016 pretournament game at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday.
Logan Couture, Jay Bouwmeester and Matt Duchene scored to give Team Canada a split of back-to-back games. Team USA won 4-2 in Columbus on Friday.
Goaltenders Braden Holtby and Corey Crawford split the game for Team Canada. Holtby faced 13 shots and gave up two goals, and Crawford made 10 saves, including a spectacular glove save on Team USA forward James van Riemsdyk.
Team Canada captain Sidney Crosby was a healthy scratch. Perry took his place.
Ryan McDonagh and John Carlson scored for Team USA. Goaltender Cory Schneider played the first two periods and gave up four goals on 24 shots. Ben Bishop played the third period and surrendered one goal on 14 shots.
Duchene scored at 12:11 of the second period to put Team Canada ahead 4-2.
Carlson scored 38 seconds into the second period on a 5-on-3 power play when he took a pass from forward Patrick Kane and one-timed a shot by Holtby.
Team Canada led 3-1 after a penalty-filled first period. It scored power-play goals by Couture and Tavares.
Team Canada coach Mike Babcock said he thought his team was guilty of overpassing the puck before the power play started to click.
"I mentioned that a couple of times," Babcock said. "That's what happens every time. When you get to this level, you're trying to give it to your teammate instead of just shooting it and getting to the net. That's how you score, shooting it and getting to the net and finding seconds.
"These are skilled players and they're used to scoring and they want their touches. When they score a little bit, they start to relax and make better plays and see things better. When you don't score, you press. At every level you play at, you've got to find your confidence. I think that was a positive thing for us tonight."
Bouwmeester gave Team Canada a 3-0 lead when he took a sharp pass from behind the net from Ryan Getzlaf and scored with a wrist shot at 15:38.
McDonagh scored at 16:35 to make it 3-1 on a shot that looked like it deflected off Team Canada defenseman Brent Burns, who was jostling with van Riemsdyk and Team USA forward Blake Wheeler in front of Holtby.
Tavares scored his second goal on the power play at 8:01 of the third period when he put a loose puck into the open side of the net to Bishop's left.
The tournament begins Sept. 17 in Toronto.
Goal of the game: Team Canada forward Tyler Seguin refused to be checked by Team USA forward T.J. Oshie to set up Duchene for the goal to make it 4-2. Seguin fought off Oshie's strong backcheck and passed the puck to Duchene in the slot.
Save of the game: Less than two minutes after Duchene scored, Crawford made a great glove save on a hard shot by van Riemsdyk from the left wing.
Unsung moment of the game: Babcock moved Seguin between Duchene and wing Joe Thornton in Claude Giroux's spot and that resulted in Seguin combining with Duchene for that fourth goal. "I thought that was important putting Seguin back in the middle tonight," Babcock said. "I thought it helped give him a little tempo, a little speed. That was positive."
Highlight moment of the game: Thirty-eight seconds into the second period, Carlson scored on a perfectly executed one-timer with Team USA on a two-man advantage, making it 3-2. Carlson's hard shot off Kane's perfect setup beat Holtby to the stick side.
They said it
"(Playing back-to-back games) is never easy, especially with all the penalties and power plays, it kind of kills the flow of the game. But we did a good job of staying patient, staying focused, and got some good goaltending when we needed it as well." -- Team Canada forward Matt Duchene
"One of the reasons we took [Sidney Crosby] out tonight is just because we really feel that we have a good line there (with Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron). We don't have to worry about it as much. What we're trying to find is other groups, obviously. I thought [Ryan Getzlaf] and Tavares were really strong tonight." -- Team Canada coach Mike Babcock
"It was kind of a different game. The first period we were killing the whole time. The second we were on the power play for a while. There was never a lot of flow. They got on us early and we never fully got back, but our game in certain areas was a little better at times." -- Team USA forward Joe Pavelski
"We knew it would be a high-paced game; that's just like a playoff game out there. It's very intense, good battles. It's lots of fun." -- Team Canada forward Brad Marchand
"Quite honestly, we played better minutes tonight than we did [Friday] night. We'll look at the video and just keep on trying to work on our game." -- Team USA coach John Tortorella
Need to know: Team USA forward Max Pacioretty started the pretournament games on the top line with Joe Pavelski and Patrick Kane but was on the fourth line in the third period Saturday. Pacioretty played 10:05, the second fewest minutes on Team USA.
"He's OK, but I need more out of him," Team USA coach John Tortorella said. "I know how he can play. This is what happens in this type of tournament and the team makeup. You're not going to get your 20 minutes. If other people are going, they tend to take some ice time. All the top players, you look at even Canada's team, your minutes are going to be down. Max hasn't … he's got to give me a reason to give him more minutes here. We'll see where it goes. We know he's a really good player, great kid, but we've just got to get a little bit more out of him."
Pacioretty was asked if this was a lost, great opportunity to be on Team USA's top line.
"Maybe it is. But we'll see," he said. "There's a lot of time to make a new impression. I probably didn't give the best first impression and maybe that's why I got dropped down. This is a team sport, and in this tournament you have to put egos to the side and do what's best for the team and I'm willing to do that."
What's next
Team USA: A pretournament game Tuesday against Team Finland in Washington (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN1, TVA Sports).
Team Canada: A pretournament game Wednesday against Team Russia in Pittsburgh (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN2, SN, TVA Sports).
