Sunday, November 14, 2010

Three-Peat?

Press Release

AMERICANS TO PLAY FOR GOLD AGAIN AFTER SEMIFINAL WIN OVER WESTPENTICTON, B.C. ' Garrett Allen had a goal and an assist in the first 11 minutes and Jimmy Mullin scoredhis tournament-leading fifth goal on a third period penalty shot as the United States kept its dreams of aWorld Junior A Challenge three-peat alive with a 5-1 semifinal win over Canada West on Saturday night.The Americans, who beat Canada West in the last two gold medal games, will face Canada East in Sunday'sfinal (5:30 p.m. PT, TSN2), while Canada West will play for bronze against Switzerland on Sunday afternoon(1:30 p.m. PT).Off since Wednesday after sweeping through Group A preliminary round play, the U.S. struck first whenCaleb Herbert deposited a rebound behind Canada West netminder Matthew Krahn, and made it 2-0 just 3:29 laterthanks to a deft deflection by Allen.Outshot 14-10 in the first period, the Canadians found themselves in a three-goal hole just 1:29 into thesecond period as Mike Parks beat Krahn, silencing a pro-Canadian crowd of more than 3,000 at the SouthOkanagan Events Centre.Canada West finally caught a break late in the second period when a loose puck popped into the slot andonto the stick of captain Clarke Breitkreuz, who ripped a shot through American goaltender Zane Gothberg tocut the lead to 3-1, but Nick Mattson got that back on a U.S. power play just over two minutes later, sendingthe game to the dressing room at 4-1 after 40 minutes.Mullin put the cap on the U.S. victory three minutes into the final frame with a penalty shot goal, neatlysliding the puck through the legs of Krahn.The loss means Canada West will not appear in the gold medal game for the first time in the tournament'sfive-year history; it won gold in 2006 and 2007 before settling for silver in 2008 and 200

(Nathan can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)

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