It may not have been quite as monumental an upset as the “Miracle on Ice” in Lake Placid. Perhaps it was a notch above Team France defeating Finland at the 2017 IIHF World Championship on the massive upset scale. However, in this case, the upset in question happened in the medal round. In this case, host team Denmark rallied for two late third period goals to defeat Team Canada, 2-1, in Herning on Thursday. The players on both sides were stunned.
The Danes hung tough all game. Outshot by a 30-11 margin through two periods, Team Denmark goaltender Frederik Dichow nursed the game to the second intermission in a scoreless tie. Late in the second period, Travis Konecny (unsportsmanlike conduct) mixed it up with Denmark center Christian Wejse (roughing).
Temporary relief
Canada continued to pepper Dichkow with rubber in the third period, growing more frustrated by the minute. Finally, at 5:17, Travis Sanheim put Canada on the board with a 1-0 lead. Konecny and Sidney Crosby assisted. Pinching down to the hash marks, Sanheim took a quick pass from Flyers teammate Konecny and fired the puck past Dichow.
Across Canada, the relief was palpable. Right after Sanheim scored, I received a text from my friend Kevin Gibson (The Gib Show). Simply, it read, “Sanheim to the rescue.”
As the third period moved along, Canada tried (and tried and tried some more) to generate an insurance goal. Dichow, who made nine saves in the third period alone and 39 for the game (shot chart here), kept the score frozen at 1-0. For the first time all match, the Danes started to press the attack on Jordan Binnington (22 shots faced in the third period).
Disaster strikes
As regulation time wound down, Canada tried to desperately cling to the one-goal lead. The lead felt anything but secure.
Finally, at 17:43 of the third period, Denmark drew even. Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers forged a 1-1 deadlock. At this point, Canada hoped only to get the game to overtime, regroup, and find a way to squeak out an ugly win to advance to the semifinal. Instead, disaster struck in the final minute of regulation.
With 49 seconds remaining on the third period clock, Nick Olesen scored at the back post after receiving a feed from Nicholas Jensen. Time ran out on Team Canada. In a single-elimination format such as the World Championships medal round, it means Canada is done. Denmark advances to the semifinal game to play Switzerland.
Other World Championships semi: Team USA vs. Tre Kronor
Friday is an off-day in the World Championships tournament. On Saturday, in addition to the Denmark-Switzerland game, Team USA will oppose Team Sweden. It is likely that Jacob Markstrom (4 GP) will get the start in goal over Samuel Ersson (3 GP). However, Flyers goalie Ersson has arguably outplayed his New Jersey Devils counterpart, including two shutouts. Thursday’s other quarterfinal results: USA 5 – Finland 2, Sweden 5 – Czechia 1, and Switzerland 6 – Austria 0.
Bill, seems like there will be a lot teams wanting to shake it up this off-season. Leafs, Vegas, now seems Carolina, all needing a new direction. Then you look at teams like Columbus and the Habs, that will look to take another step. It seems Danny B will have plenty of options to improve the roster. You got one wild prediction/move the Flyers could/might make.