The IIHF Men’s World Championships ended yesterday as the Swedes trounced Switzerland 5-1 to take the gold medal. Until Sunday, it had been 27 years since the host country had taken the gold medal. Granted, that has as much to do with the fact that the World Championships are frequently held in places where the host team are less than hockey powerhouses, but nonetheless, it’s a nice feeling to win in front of the home crowd.
On the other hand, it had been 60 years since Switzerland had won a medal of any kind in the World Championships. They’ve never won a gold medal, and this loss gave them another silver. Still, the Swiss were unquestionably a dominant team in this tournament, and they certainly earned the opportunity to play for the gold medal. It will be interesting to see if the Swiss national hockey program has really grown into a perennial contender or if this was simply a case of the stars aligning for them. Even this tournament only moved them up two spots on the IIHF’s world ranking.
The United States squeaked by Finland in a shootout to capture the bronze medal. I will never understand allowing an elimination game to be decided by the shootout, much less a medal game, but there you are. It happened and we’ll all just have to live with it. Lightning players Matt Carle and Nate Thompson went pointless in the match and each had two shots on goal. Ben Bishop did not play.
Canada was eliminated from medal contention on Thursday, also after a shootout, which really makes you wonder what kind of alternate universes have opened up over there this week.
Lightning Players Stats
|
Team |
GP |
Pts |
+/- |
SOG |
SH% |
PIM |
|
|
USA |
10 |
0-2-2 |
0 |
12 |
0.0 |
0 |
|
|
CAN |
8 |
7-5-12 |
+6 |
31 |
22.58 |
6 |
|
|
USA |
10 |
1-2-3 |
+1 |
11 |
9.09 |
8 |
|
Team |
GP |
SV% |
GAA |
SOs |
W-L |
|
|
USA |
5 |
.876 |
2.83 |
0 |
3-2 |
|
|
SVK |
2 |
.875 |
3.00 |
0 |
0-2 |
IIHF World Men’s Hockey Rankings for 2013
