World Jr. Hockey - Canada Beats USA

**The Project** · 01-05-2011, 09:32 AM

Canada faces Russia for hockey GOLD.....USA to play Sweden for Bronze.

American junior team at a loss after getting blown out of the rink by Canada

BUFFALO, N.Y. - The Americans came into the world junior hockey championship as the defending champions and one of the pre-tournament favourites, but when the time came to turn their game up a notch they just couldn't do it.

To a man, they were at a loss to explain why they played so poorly in a 4-1 semifinal loss to Canada on Monday night that was far more one-sided than the score indicated.

They all knew that the Canadians were eager to avenge last year's loss in the gold-medal game and that an early blitz of aggressive forechecking and physical play was coming as soon as the puck was dropped.

But after cruising through the round robin at 4-0 and rarely being tested, the Americans just couldn't rise to the level of play needed.

"I don't know what it was," said U.S. captain John Ramage, who like many of his teammates looked shellshocked afterwards. "We knew exactly what they were going to bring tonight and we didn't match it.

"We didn't compete with them, and we never gave ourselves a chance."

Their poor effort turned Canada's pursuit of vengeance into a coronation, complete with a rabidly pro-Canadian crowd taking over HSBC Arena. When fans started chanting "This is our house," during the game, no American was in position to argue with them.

The U.S. players were on their heels from the get-go and Curtis Hamilton's goal 2:38 in only made it worse. It was 2-0 after one, 3-0 after two, and 4-0 when Chris Brown scored a too-little, too-late power-play goal midway through the third.

"They came out on fire, they came out a lot harder than we did," said Brown. "We came out flat and didn't play the way we needed to play."

Not even close, and now the Americans will try to salvage their home tournament by beating Sweden for the bronze on Wednesday.