COLUMBUS, Ohio – Jonathan Quick (Milford, Conn.) made 32 saves to help the U.S. World Cup of Hockey Team defeat Canada, 4-2, here tonight at Nationwide Arena in the first of three pre-tournament games in advance of the World Cup of Hockey 2016.
“It was a terrific atmosphere,” said John Tortorella, head coach of the U.S. World Cup of Hockey Team, “and I know our players really enjoyed the energy in the building. We had a great week here and on behalf of our team I’d like to thank everyone involved, particularly the fans tonight.”
Zach Parise (Minneapolis, Minn.) gave Team USA a 1-0 lead with 3:04 left in the opening period when he tipped home Ryan Suter’s (Madison, Wis.) shot from the top of the right circle past goaltender Carey Price. Just 1:05 later, Patrick Kane (Buffalo, N.Y.) buried his own rebound from an odd angle to double the U.S. lead.
Quick stopped all 15 shots he faced, including a two-on-one attempt by Brad Marchand, to keep Canada scoreless after one period.
John Tavares nearly halved Team USA’s lead in the early stages of the second period, but Ryan Kesler (Livonia, Mich.) dropped to his knees in front of the U.S. goal and blocked Tavares’ shot during a net-front scramble. However, Patrice Bergeron lifted a close rebound into the back of the net to cut the U.S. lead to 2-1 at 13:34 of the middle frame.
Team USA regained a two-goal advantage with 4:06 left in the period when captain Joe Pavelski (Plover, Wis.) crashed the net and scored on a rebound off a Jack Johnson (Ann Arbor, Mich,) shot, past Price.
Quick made another 16 saves in the second period before giving way to Ben Bishop (Denver, Colo.) with the U.S. holding a 3-1 lead heading into the final stanza.
Canada again made it a one-goal game when Drew Doughty fired a slap shot from the right faceoff dot 5:21 into the third period.
Derek Stepan (Hastings, Minn.) scored into an empty net with 1:21 remaining to account for the 4-2 final.
Bishop stopped nine of 10 shots in 20 minutes of action.
The U.S. and Canada meet again tomorrow (Sept. 10) at 7 p.m. ET at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa before Team USA closes out its pre-tournament slate Tuesday (Sept. 13) at 7 p.m. ET against Finland at Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. Both games will be streamed live on WatchESPN, with the game vs. Finland also being nationally televised on ESPN.
NOTES: The World Cup of Hockey 2016 will include eight teams split into two groups of four … Teams will play a round-robin format within their group and the top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinals … The U.S. will be competing in Group A with Canada, Czech Republic and Team Europe … All games will be played at Air Canada Centre in Toronto and be 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 .
