Team USA Beats Russia 4-3 In Shootout In World Junior Hockey Semifinals

Troy Terry scored on all three of his shootout attempts, the last in the seventh round to propel Team USA to a 4-3 victory over Russia on Wednesday in the World Junior Hockey semifinals in Montreal.

Team USA Beats Russia 4-3 In shootout in World Junior Hockey Semifinals

The Americans next face Canada in the final on Thursday. The Canadians defeated Sweden 5-2 on Wednesday night.

Terry netted the winner immediately after Russia’s Alexander Polunin hit the crossbar. The University of Denver forward shot through goalkeeper Ilya Samsonov’s legs for the third time.

“I’m just trying to gather my words here,” said the 19-year-old Terry, an Anaheim draft pick. “I’m still shaking a little bit. He’s is such a big goalie, I felt the best way to score on him was going five-hole. The second and third time, I was just trying to figure it out as I went down.”

Russia opened the scoring with 8:06 left in the first period when Kirill Kaprizov’s wraparound attempt slid past Tyler Parsons (Chesterfield, Mich./London Knights). Parsons made 33 saves.

The Americans tied it up with 55 seconds remaining when Clayton Keller St. Louis, Mo./Boston University) fired an odd-angled shot just below the left circle that deflected off Colin White’s (Hanover, Mass./Boston College) leg and past Samsonov.

Denis Guryanov gave Russia a 2-1 advantage just 1:17 into the second frame when he found a rebound off an initial save from Parsons.

Team USA evened the game again on a power-play goal by captain Luke Kunin (Chesterfield, Mich./University of Wisconsin) with 9:37 remaining in the period. The play began when Jordan Greenway (Canton, N.Y./Boston University) fired a pass in front of the net for Kunin, who then shot the puck just below the crossbar for the goal.

White’s second goal of the game with 3:39 left in the middle frame gave the U.S. its first lead of the game. That marked White’s team-leading sixth goal of the tournament.

Team USA’s two best opportunities in overtime came from Joey Anderson (Roseville, Minn./University of Minnesota-Duluth). Moments after he fired a shot from the top of the right circle off the crossbar, a loose puck in front of the goal landed on his stick, but Samsonov managed to step in right on time to make the save. Samsonov finished with 40 saves.

“I’m so happy for our guys and the fight that they showed here tonight,” said Bob Motzko (St. Cloud, Minn./St. Cloud State University), head coach of the 2017 U.S. National Junior Team. “That was a tremendous game to be a part of. We’ll enjoy this for a little, but our guys know the mission isn’t over. It’s exciting to know we have a chance at the gold medal tomorrow.”

Seeking its fourth title and first since 2013, the U.S. defeated Russia in the knockout round for the first time in eight games. The Americans also beat Russia 4-3 in the preliminary round.

“It was more than just a game,” White said. “Knowing we lost seven times in a row, we had to do this for more than ourselves, for our country, and we pulled it off.”

The U.S. and Canada have met three times in the final, with Canada winning in 1997 and the Americans in 2004 and 2010. Canada won the last of its record 16 titles in 2015.

The U.S. beat Canada 3-1 on Saturday in their group finale.

MONTREAL, QC – JANUARY 04: Jack Roslovic #28 of Team United States skates the puck against Mikhail Sidorov #3 of Team Russia during the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship semifinal game at the Bell Centre on January 4, 2017 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)

Article by Pablo Mena