It’s Still Canada’s Game, Just Barely U.S. Ties Game With 6.3 Seconds Left, But Then Falls To Canada 4-3 In Overtime

For the second straight game, Canada blew a third-period lead in the World Cup of Hockey tournament and lived to tell about it.

“It was end-to-end all night, tough hockey,” Canada coach Glen Sather said after his team pulled out a 4-3 victory over the United States on Tuesday night with 9:23 left in overtime. “Too bad somebody has to win, but I’m glad it was us.”

Canada hardly did it the easy way, though. The Canadians were only 6.3 seconds away from a victory in regulation when they allowed the Americans to tie it on a goal by John LeClair.

Saturday, they were in the driver’s seat with a 2-0 lead in the semifinals against Sweden when they allowed their opponents to tie the game in the third period. The Canadians finally won 3-2 in double overtime to move into the finals.

Yzerman’s goal gave the Canadians a chance to wrap up the championship with a win in Game 2 Thursday night in Montreal. A third game, if necessary, would be Saturday in Montreal.

U.S. coach Ron Wilson insisted that Canada’s Rod Brind’Amour was offsides when Yzerman came down the left wing and shot from about 10 feet away inside the faceoff circle. U.S. goalie Mike Richter got a piece of the wrist shot but the puck rolled over his shoulder and dropped into his net.

“I debated on driving wide and taking it behind the net, and for whatever reason, I turned back and threw a shot at the net,” Yzerman said.

Wilson said the goal shouldn’t have counted.

“It was offsides by about 3 feet,” Wilson said. “But the linesman missed it. We didn’t play well enough to win.”

The U.S., which had played with such cohesion throughout the tournament, “broke down into a group of individuals trying to win, instead of a team,” Wilson said. “We can play better than that.”

Canada, which outshot the U.S. 7-1 in overtime and 35-26 overall, was only seconds away from victory in regulation when LeClair sent the game into overtime with a goal that was actually pushed into the net by defenseman Eric Desjardins.

With just less than 10 seconds to play in the third period and the U.S. having lifted its goaltender for the extra attacker, Joel Otto won a draw in the Canada zone to Brian Leetch.

Leetch’s shot from 20 feet was stopped by Curtis Joseph, but the rebound bounced clear. Desjardins was trying to shovel the loose puck under his goalie but it went too far, dribbling into the net.

“I told them they deserved to win,” Sather said when asked about what he told his team before overtime. “We were after them all of the third period.”

Theo Fleury’s goal halfway through the final period gave Canada a 3-2 lead.

Fleury, who scored the game-winner on Saturday, collected a loose puck outside the U.S. blue line and skated in on Richter. He faked a move to the front of the net, causing Richter to drop to the ice, then beat the goalie with a short shot from a tough angle along the goal line at 9:58.

Eric Lindros and Claude Lemieux scored the other goals for Canada. Derian Hatcher scored both U.S. goals.

The U.S. trailed 1-0 after one period before Hatcher scored twice in the second. Lemieux’s goal with 39 seconds left in the second period made it 2-2 going into the third.

Lemieux was credited with the tying goal on a play set up by Mark Messier. Messier sidestepped a check at the blue line by Mathieu Schneider and skated along the right wing before flipping a pass to the net.

The puck hit either Lemieux or the U.S.’s Scott Young in front and dropped into the net.