World Championship Wrapup

Anson Carter’s goal at 13:49 of overtime capped the 2003 IIHF World Championship tournament for Team Canada. Carter’s goal gave Canada a 3-2 victory, and their first World Championship gold medal since 1997.

Canada finished the tournament undefeated with an 8-0-1 record. The only blemish on their record a 2-2 tie with Denmark in the Qualification Round.

“It’s hard to express how I feel right now,” said Carter. “It’s three or four long weeks of hard work the boys put in, showing the commitment to come over here and play for our country on the bigger ice surface. We come to a tremendous country like Finland, where the people treated us first-class, and now we get to bring home the gold medal. Mission accomplished.”

Sweden staked a 2-0 lead in the first period as Mathias Tjarnqvist and P.J Axelsson scored goals. Team Canada cut the lead in half in the opening frame when Shawn Horcoff scored his third of the tournament. Both teams traded chances in the second period but could not score as Mikael Tellqvist and Roberto Luongo held their teams in it. The World Championships gave Mikael Tellqvist, who was a surprise starter throughout for Sweden, a chance to show what kind of goaltender he is. Tellqvist played in seven games for Sweden, posting a 1.37 goals against average and 94% saves percentage.

Tellqvist outplayed Tommy Salo who was incredibly ineffective, particularly against the Finns when he gave up five goals over two periods before Tre Kronor mounted one of the amazing comebacks in World Championship history to win 6-5. In shutting the door on Finland, Tellqvist seemed to have completely won the confidence of head coach Hardy Nilsson.

Canada tied the game in the third when Shane Doan scored at 9:03 of the period to send it into overtime. Carter’s overtime goal provided a dramatic finish to the contest but at first the referee, Vladimir Sindler, was not sure the puck went in. Carter skated down the right side and blasted a shot at Tellqvist who got a glove on the puck, but it fell to the side of the net. Carter picked up his own rebound and wrapped the puck around between Tellqvist’s pad and the post.

Despite Canada’s celebration, the goal light did not go on. Sindler blew the play dead and reviewed the play with the video goal judge. Nearly ten minutes later, after reviewing the play from every conceivable angle, it was ruled a goal. One angle showed the puck definitely crossed the goal line.

“It took a long time to see if the goal was in,” said Axelsson. “I’ve never seen that before, but obviously they took their time and they saw that the puck was in. It’s a strange way to end a hockey but you know, you don’t think that much about it. You just hope that the puck isn't in, and you sit there and wait.

The win gave Canada its first gold medal since 1997. Ironically, Andy Murray coached that team and Anson Carter, Sean Burke, Cory Cross- all members of this team- were on that squad, too. The final irony is that the tournament was also in Finland that year, in the same building.

“Finland has been very good to me as a coach,” said Murray. “We’ve had tremendous support here. I will remember forever this moment. To say one victory (1997) is better than the other is impossible.”

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP NOTEBOOK

- Belarus and Slovenia were relegated into Pool B for next year; France and Kazakhstan will participate at next year’s World Championships in Prague and Ostrava.

- Hobey Baker winner Peter Sejna made his international debut with Slovakia. The 6-2, 207 forward, who signed with the St. Louis Blues at the conclusion on his college season, played in four games but did not register a point for Bronze medal winning Slovakia.

- While Team USA did not fare well, John Pohl and Jordan Leopold kept the squad from being demoted with good performances in the Relegation Round. Pohl started slow in the tournament but seemed to really find his legs in the final game of the Preliminary Round against Russia, and that carried through the rest of the way. Leopold did not use the big ice to his advantage early on, and in many situations where he pinched in too deep, he left opponents with startling two on ones coming back the other way. This was quite apparent in their opening night loss to Denmark.

- Ryan Miller, who starred last year for Team USA, struggled this time. Miller was ordinary against Denmark and somewhat shaky against Switzerland despite giving up only one goal. His performance over the first two games prompted head coach Lou Vairo not to dress Miller for the game against Russia. Miller did come back and played in the Relegation Round. His performance over the last months of the AHL season and the World Championships suggests that Miller needs to work on his endurance and in being able to handle the load a full season of professional hockey entails.

- Czech forward Jiri Hudler played quite well in fourth line duties. Hudler scored two goals and six points in nine games. A member of the Czech World Junior team, Hudler was making his first appearance with the senior squad. Although not very big, Hudler’s size did not put him at a disadvantage and he showed some grit in tough games. Hudler showed a weakness in winning draws but his offensive instincts were impressive.

- Russian head coach Vladimir Plyuschev had some interesting comments after his team was eliminated from the tournament. When asked about the number of young players in the lineup and what this meant for the future of the program Plyuschev said:

“I never said this was the team of the future, but this will be the team that plays for us in 2004 at the World Cup and in 2006 at the Olympics.”

This begs the question: what is he thinking? Is it all bluster, does he have the backing of the Russian Hockey Federation to say this? Or is it yet another move in the ongoing game of chess being played between Russian NHLer’s and Russian hockey officials. At the NHL’s crown jewel, the 2004 World Cup, a Russian team comprised of Dmitri Erofeev, Alexander Zhdan and Egor Podomatsky and not Alexei Yashin, Alexei Kovalev and Sergei Gonchar probably won’t sit well with league officials, or players.