Team USA Gets Robbed Of 2 Goals In Plain Daylight By Refs, Lose To Canada In World Juniors Semifinals
I'll tell you what--there needs to be legal action taken against the IIHF. Because what we witnessed tonight in Halifax was pure thievery.
The game couldn't have started out better for the Americans. Logan Cooley got the scoring started for the boys early in the game. They were getting pucks deep, cycling low in the corners, putting pucks on net, crashing hard to the paint, and were rewarded for their grit with a 2-0 lead after Kenny Connors stuffed home a rebound a few minutes later in the 1st period.
2-0 lead early in the game to quiet down the Canadian crowd. And then…well then the wheels started to fall off. Clearly the Canadians realized they were getting outworked and must have said a few spicy words in the locker room during the first intermission. Because they came out on fire in the 2nd period and scored 2 straight goals to take their first lead of the night. It's a 3-2 ball game and then that's where the IIHF stepped in with the worst call in hockey history.
Jackson Blake goes hard to the paint, gets his stick on the loose puck at the top of the crease, spins around and stuffs it in the back of the net to make it a 3-3 game. Just a great job of never giving up on the play and getting to the greasy areas. Everything you would ever teach a young hockey player to do. But somehow, some way, the IIHF rules are set up so THAT is considered goaltender interference. Ridiculous.
The most egregious part of that whole clip is the fact that the Canadian goalie, Thomas Milic, didn't even think to bitch to the refs afterwards about goaltender interference. If anybody would have known there was some interference going on there, it would have been him. But he didn't even budge. But somehow that goal gets overturned, the scoreboard goes back to 3-2, and eventually Canada gets on the board again to make it a 4-2 game.
Then the 3rd period comes around. The boys are still grinding. They're competing. They're getting pucks on net and crashing hard. And that hard work pays off when Rutger McGroarty jams this puck in the back of the net.
No whistle. No nothing. Just getting to greasy areas and never giving up on the play. But this one ends up getting overturned, too. And I'll be honest--you can definitely make a better case for goaltender interference than the first one. The puck was under Milic's pads before it was pushed into the net. But still. You play until you hear a whistle, and there was no whistle here. Apparently the IIHF doesn't give a shit about compete. They don't care about battling your bag off.
A couple more insurance goals for Canada later, and that's all she wrote. What could have been a 4-4 game in the 3rd period turned into a total thumping. You actually hate to see it. And sure, there's a strong chance that Canada was still the better team tonight despite the 2 goals wiped off the board for the Americans. But that's besides the point. The fact of the matter is that the IIHF is ran by a bunch of cowards, and I'm officially placing this game under protest.
Sidenote: As much as I hate the result, I can't wait to watch Bedard in the gold medal game.