USA Hockey’s disappointing year continued on Thursday in Belarus where the Americans were eliminated in the quarterfinals at the world hockey championships.
The Americans fell behind early, and a late comeback attempt fell just short, as they were knocked out of the IIHF tournament with a 4-3 loss to the Czech Republic. The American men have now failed to medal at the world junior, the Olympics and now the world championships in the last five months.
Team USA, which was one of the youngest teams in the tournament, was undisciplined and failed to take advantage of opportunities in bowing out to a more experienced Czech Republic team. The Americans fell behind 4-1 in the second period, but cut the lead to one with goals in the final two minutes of the third period, but their desperation-driven comeback fell short, as they couldn’t get a shot off in the final seconds.
The Czechs took advantage of numerous power plays and scored three goals on the man-advantage. Two of those goals came after Team USA captain Justin Abdelkader was ejected for a high, late hit on Vladimir Sobotka. The Czechs scored just 10 seconds into the five-minute power play when Tomas Hertl scored, and Roman Cervenka pushed the lead to 3-1 with another power-play goal shortly after.
Tim Thomas stopped 29 of 33 shots in the losing effort for the Americans.
Nashville Predators super-prospect Seth Jones led all Americans with 11 points (two goals, nine assists) during the tournament. Boston College standout and Calgary Flames prospect Johnny Gaudreau followed close behind with 2-8-10 totals in eight games for Team USA.
Photo via Twitter/@USAHockey
