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Team Europe hits Canada with best shot, still falls in World Cup Game 1

TORONTO, ON - SEPTEMBER 27: during Game One of the World Cup of Hockey 2016 final series at the Air Canada Centre on September 27, 2016 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Dave Sandford /World Cup of Hockey via Getty Images) *** Local Caption ***
Marian Hossa play the puck during Game One of the World Cup of Hockey 2016 final series at the Air Canada Centre on September 27, 2016 in Toronto, Canada. (Getty Images)

TORONTO – Early in the first game of the World Cup final, Team Europe zipped into the offensive zone on the attack.

They fired three three shots on goal and quickly drew a crosschecking penalty by Canada forward Brad Marchand.

Throughout the first two periods, Europe never held back against the undefeated Canadians. This was a change in how they had approached previous World Cup games, where they fell back into a defensive style rather than carrying the play.

In the first period, even though they allowed two goals and didn’t score any, they attempted 23 shots to Canada’s 20. In the second period they scored a goal to pull the game to within 2-1.

After the game European players said they had played their best game of the tournament and noted they won somewhat of a moral victory in their 3-1 loss, but left wondering what they had to do to actually beat the powerful Canadians.

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“It’s always tough to lose regardless of who you’re playing,” Europe captain Anze Kopitar said. “Again, I think we definitely can’t hang our heads down or be too disappointed. Obviously nobody’s feeling great because of the loss and we’ll address some things tomorrow and get back at it on Thursday.”

Before the final series Europe had been outshot 150-109 as they relied on goaltender Jaroslav Halak to carry them defensively. On the offensive side they stayed patient and waited for their opportunities. Going into this game it was a good bet they’d play this same style overall. Instead of using this strategy, they put Canada off balance.

“If they have one weakness it’s probably defending, so we tried to make them defend out there and I think we did a pretty good job of it,” Team Europe forward Frans Nielsen said.

Even though Europe pushed the pace at points, outshooting Canada 9-4 in the first eight minutes into the game, they still made mistakes that allowed the Canadians to score goals.

Marchand scored a goal 2:33 into the game on a rush up ice with Patrice Bergeron. With 6:40 left in the first, Ryan Getzlaf stripped the puck from Zdeno Chara and found Steven Stamkos on a 2-on-1 to bury a goal.

“I think if you cut the goals out of the videos, there’s an even chance opportunity here for us with Canada, which we’re proud of that effort, and the creation of it, but we’re very frustrated, of course, with what and how we gave up the goals we did. Just a little bit too much risk at the wrong times and the power of Canada is that, to take opportunities and jam them into the net,” Europe coach Ralph Krueger said. “I think what we can take out of this is a lot of courage that we played a strong game, that we had a lot of opportunity that we didn’t make enough out of.”

Europe got to within one goal when Tomas Tatar buried a rebound off a shot from Dennis Seidenberg seven minutes into the second period. After this, Europe had chances to tie the game. Andrej Sekera had a shorthanded breakaway that was stopped by Team Canada goaltender Carey Price. They had a second period power play when Marchand took an interference penalty but couldn’t push the puck past Price who stopped 32 of 33 Europe shots on goal.

Will they struggle knowing that they played their best but still couldn’t win? Or will this loss embolden them that they can hang with Canada and play a stronger game overall? We will find out in the next game Thursday.

“We’ve done well with adversity in this month. We’ve had a few situations of it, and I think knowing these players, this will give us more fuel for Game 2, and we’ll come out of this stronger,” Krueger said. “Again, we’re here to continue to grow and to learn and evolve, and we’re very angry right now, which is a good thing. But we also are confident with what we felt today, and it makes us that much more frustrated at the moment. I’m sure we’re going to come out fighting very strong in Game 2.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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