The US lost to Finland at the World Championships Wednesday, 12 May, by a score of 3-2.
The US went O-fer in the round robin preliminary rounds and finished last in its group. This means that they have been knocked down to the relegation round and will face Kazakhastan 15 May. The other relegation round game is Italy versus France. They will also play Italy on 16 May, and France on 18 May. When the relegation round is complete, the bottom two teams drop to Division I play while the top two stay in the Championship Division.
So the United States in international play will have gone from playing for an Olympic gold medal to potentially dropping to Division I in three months. Granted, these are not the exact same guys that had played on the silver-medal winning team, and this team does not have the same coaches that coached the Olympic team. But still, three months later, this is pretty embarrassing. The last time the US was in the relegation round was in 2003.
Also see:
1982 a dark time for USA Hockey [IIHF]
Team USA’s relegation nightmare continues at IIHF worlds [Puck Daddy]
USA-Finland Recap [IIHF]
USA-Finland Boxscore [IIHF]
Statistics / Games and Results [IIHF]
USA Hockey [official site]
Suomen Jääkiekkoliitto [official site – in Finnish]
