{"id":28794,"date":"2007-01-01T14:48:58","date_gmt":"2007-01-01T20:48:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2007\/01\/01\/us-reaches-wjc-quarters-with-win-over-sweden\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:56:43","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:56:43","slug":"us-reaches-wjc-quarters-with-win-over-sweden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/2007\/01\/01\/us-reaches-wjc-quarters-with-win-over-sweden\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Reaches WJC Quarters With Win Over Sweden"},"content":{"rendered":"
Defenseman Jack Johnson’s power-play blast from the side of the left circle propelled the United States to a 3-2 overtime victory over Sweden in preliminary-round play at the 31st annual International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship. <\/p>\n
The win vaulted the United States into Tuesday’s quarterfinal round, where Team USA will face Finland at 7:30 p.m. at the FM Mattsson Arena in Mora, Sweden. <\/p>\n
“Obviously, that was a very big win for our hockey team,” said U.S. head coach Ron Rolston. “We didn’t get the start we wanted to, but we showed a lot of character and got better as the game wore one.”<\/p>\n
Team USA started the night knowing that it needed a win to advance to the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
While the first period was scoreless, both teams had solid scoring chances. Team USA finished with 11 shots on goal in the first period, however, its first shot was a shorthanded effort from the high slot by Justin Abdelkader nearly eight minutes in. Sweden had 12 shots on goal in the stanza but could not solve U.S. netminder Jeff Frazee. <\/p>\n
Sweden took a 1-0 lead at 7:16 of the second period in shorthanded fashion as Andreas Turesson put home the rebound of Martin Johansson’s initial shot. Team USA rallied with two goals in a 1:35 span in the back half of the period to stake a 2-1 advantage at 40 minutes.<\/p>\n
Kyle Okposo intercepted a Swedish pass behind the net and fed Patrick Kane in front for Kane’s third goal in two games. Then Ryan Stoa banged home the second rebound in tight at 13:25 following Peter Mueller’s initial shot from the left circle and Nathan Gerbe’s rebound attempt. <\/p>\n
The U.S. looked like it would win the game in regulation, however, with :14 left in regulation and Sweden netminder Joel Gistedt pulled in favor of an extra attacker, Fredrik Pettersson got the puck by Frazee to tie the game. <\/p>\n
That set the stage for Jack Johnson, who scored his second game-winning goal in as many days. Erik Johnson and Jack Skille drew assists on the four-on-three overtime goal. <\/p>\n
Frazee finished with 28 saves, while Gistedt had 31 stops for Sweden. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Defenseman Jack Johnson’s power-play blast from the side of the left circle propelled the United States to a 3-2 overtime victory over Sweden in preliminary-round play at the 31st annual International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship. The win vaulted the United States into Tuesday’s quarterfinal round, where Team USA will face Finland at 7:30 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n