Eberle leads Canada to another win over the U.S.A.
Friday-January 01, 2010
By: Aaron Bell
Canada is starting to get used to dramatic New Year’s Eve wins over the U.S.A.
After a last minute win in the final game of the round robin in Ottawa a year ago, Canada needed a standout shootout performance to get past the U.S.A. in the prelimanry round finale in Saskatoon on Thursday.
Jordan Eberle of the Regina Pats scored a pair of regulation goals and counted again in the shootout to lead Canada to a 5-4 win that gave them a perfect 4-0 record in the round robin segment of the tournament and a bye into the semi-final round on Sunday.
The shootout win capped a dramatic rebound after Canada fell behind by a pair of goals early in the third period.
“We still had high spirits in the dressing room coming out for the third period,” said Canadian goaltender Jake Allen of the Montreal Juniors. “We were all ready even though they got a quick goal early. I knew the guys wouldn’t quit. It doesn’t matter what the score is – they’re not going to quit. We battled back.”
Stefan Della Rovere of the Barrie Colts opened the scoring in the first period but Canada allowed a pair of short-handed goals by Jordan Schroeder in the second period and fell behind 4-2 early in the third.
Eberle scored midway through the second period to pull Canada to within one and then Alex Pietrangelo of the St. Louis Blues tied the game with a short-handed marker.
Canada thought they scored the tying goal earlier but the officials ruled that Brayden Schenn was in the crease and waved the goal off.
The score remained tied after three periods and the five minute overtime session solved nothing.
Eberle and Nazem Kadri of the London Knights scored in the shootout and then Brandon Kozun of the Calgary Hitmen scored the shootout winner to seal the win.
Allen allowed the first two shooters to score but shut the door on Schroeder to seal the win.
“It feels great,” Kozun said. “It’s definitely surreal. That was an interesting game. It feels great to be on top. I think when we scored that third goal – that was huge for us. You could hear the crowd get into it. We put the pedal on and it seemed to go our way.”
