How did the Flames fare in Sunday’s World Cup prelims?
By Ryan Pike
7 years agoThere was only one pre-tournament game on the World Cup of Hockey schedule on Sunday. But it was a big one, as Team North America faced Team Europe in Montreal in a rematch of the previous 4-0 win for the young guns in Quebec City.
How did Johnny Gaudreau’s crew fare in their second tune-up?
NORTH AMERICA (Johnny Gaudreau) beat EUROPE 7-4
North America cruised out to an early lead, played a bit shakily through the middle part of the game, but they held on for a fairly impressive (if incomplete) 7-4 win over Europe.
Gaudreau had a really, really nice game. Playing on a line with Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel, Gaudreau was perhaps North America’s best player. He had two goals – the eventual game-winner early in the second and a crucial insurance marker late in the third with Europe pressing – and both of them were created by some heads up play by the 23-year old.
The first goal saw Gaudreau not quite bury a chance on the left side of Jaroslav Halak, so he chucked the puck back out front and it bonked in off of a fender. The second goal was just pure stick-handling brilliance.
Overall, Gaudreau played 16:53 (only Nathan MacKinnon played more, among forwards on North America), 4:41 on the power-play (tied with Jonathan Drouin for most PP time among North American forwards), 5 shots (tied for the team lead) and a +1 rating.
What did Flames general manager Brad Treliving think of Gaudreau’s performance?
Up Next
All of the World Cup squads have one remaining pre-tournament game before everything kicks off officially on Saturday in Toronto. Your Flames-related games are as follows:
- On Tuesday, Finland (Jyrki Jokipakka) plays the United States at 5pm MT (Sportsnet One)
- On Wednesday, North American (Gaudreau) plays the Czech Republic (Michael Frolik & Jakub Nakladal) at 1:30pm MT (Sportsnet & Sportsnet One), followed by Sweden (Mikael Backlund) facing Europe at 5pm MT (Sportsnet 360).
Recent articles from Ryan Pike
