TORONTO, Canada. – Team USA outshot Team Europe 35-17, but fell, 3-0, here today in the opening game of the World Cup of Hockey 2016.
“I thought our effort was there” said John Tortorella, head coach of the U.S. World Cup of Hockey Team. “Our path is more difficult now, but we’ve got a good group and we’ll spend the next couple of days getting ready for our game against Canada.”
Team Europe jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Marian Gaborik finished a two-on-one break at 4:19 of the opening period.
Leon Draisaitl tallied on a two-on-zero rush at 4:02 of the second period to double Team Europe’s advantage.
James van Riemsdyk (Middletown, N.J.) looked to have put the U.S. on the board with a power-play goal late in the second period, but his marker was disallowed after it was ruled the puck was deliberately directed into the net with his body.
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored on a deflection with 1:28 left in the second frame to give Team Europe a 3-0 lead after two periods.
Team USA outshot Europe 17-7 in the final period, but was unable to solve goaltender Jaroslav Halak.
Jonathan Quick (Milford, Conn.) finished with 14 stops for the U.S.
Team USA continues preliminary-round play Tuesday (Sept. 20) at 8:00 p.m. ET against Canada. The game will be televised live in the U.S. on ESPN, in addition to being streamed live on WatchESPN.
NOTES: For full game statistics, click here … The U.S. is competing in Group A with Canada, Czech Republic and Team Europe … All games are being played at Air Canada Centre in Toronto and televised to U.S. viewers on the ESPN family of networks (ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNNEWS) … The competition is a joint effort of the National Hockey League Players’ Association and the National Hockey League, in cooperation with the International Ice Hockey Federation and its member federations … The World Cup of Hockey has been conducted on two previous occasions (1996, 2004), with the U.S. winning the first edition in 1996 …
