2017-18 National Men's Team

CANADA FALLS TO U.S. IN BRONZE MEDAL GAME

JESSICA GOWANS

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Marc-Édouard Vlasic (Montreal, Que./San Jose, NHL) scored late in the second period, but it wasn’t enough as Canada’s National Men’s Team fell 4-1 to the United States in the bronze medal game Sunday at the 2018 IIHF World Championship.

The Vlasic goal came with less than two minutes left in the second, finishing a gorgeous passing play from Kyle Turris (New Westminster, B.C./Nashville, NHL) and Bo Horvat (London, Ont./Vancouver, NHL).

Turris started the play, rushing the puck out of the Canadian zone before whipping a cross-ice pass to Horvat, who made a nifty backhand pass to Vlasic around an American defender. The blue-liner made no mistake, snapping his shot past Keith Kinkaid to finish off the tic-tac-toe play.

Curtis McElhinney (London, Ont./Toronto, NHL) got his first start in net since facing Finland in the preliminary round. He was outstanding between the pipes, stopping 33 of 35 shots and keeping the game within reach for Canada.

He made several big saves in the second period to keep the deficit at one after the Americans opened the scoring, including an unbelievable sprawling left pad stop against Nick Bonino.

Chris Kreider broke the scoreless deadlock in second period. With the Americans on the power play, Kreider picked the puck out of the skates of Canadian captain Connor McDavid (Newmarket, Ont./Edmonton, NHL) and tucked it around McElhinney.

Bonino put the Americans ahead for good with a goal early in the third. McElhinney made the initial save off of a Patrick Kane shot, but Bonino corralled the puck as it rebounded out in front and flipped in a backhand.

Empty-netters from Anders Lee and Kreider sealed the win for the United States.

McDavid finished the tournament as Canada’s leading scorer with 17 points in 10 games, which was good for third in in tournament scoring, behind the Kane and Finland’s Sebastian Aho.