BUFFALO, N.Y. — United States coach Bob Motzko knows there are two sides to any good rivalry. The success of one faction drives the other to reassess, learn and improve, and eventually fortune begins to shift in favor of the other. Back and forth they go in perpetuity, the pendulum rarely lingering in one corner too long.
Canada's intracontinental game of anything you can do, I can do better with the U.S. has been particularly one-sided at the under-20 level of late. But with the Americans reeling from a 3-2 upset loss to Slovakia Thursday, the first stunner at the 2018 World Junior Championship, it seemed their neighbors to the north would use the chance to avenge what happened a year ago in Montreal. For 40 minutes in Friday's snowy outdoor spectacle, it seemed as though the Canadians would have it.
Then the deju vu kicked in.
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Playing with the false comfort of a two-goal lead, Canada slipped up. It was 3-2 after Scott Perunovich scored on a U.S. power play 6 minutes, 9 seconds into the period. Then, 34 seconds later, Brady Tkachuk tied the game by burying a pass from Casey Mittelstadt, the tournament's scoring leader who set up all three U.S. goals.
At the end of the second period, Motzko said he turned to assistant coach Greg Brown and said, "'If we get one, we’ll get two,’ if we get one, and bing, bing. That takes a lot of character today to bounce back from what happened yesterday."
Lake effect snowfall at New Era Field meant all Canada had to do is stick to its gameplan and stay out of the penalty box.
But it's become a chore to hold a lead against the Americans. The sides played a scoreless three-on-three overtime. And in the shootout (sound familiar?), no Canadian could crack U.S. goalie Jake Oettinger, who turned aside 19 of 22 shots in the first 65 minutes. Tkachuk and Kieffer Bellows both beat Carter Hart at the other end.
The final result: a 4-3 USA victory, its third consecutive over Canada at the world juniors.
“A little bit? A lot," an especially curt Canada coach Dominique Ducharme said, asked if his team had a little bit to learn after the loss. "We had control of the game. We put them back in it with bad penalties.”
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Let's dial it back to last year's gold medal epic between the two arch-rivals. Canada coughed up a two-goal in the third period, played on its heels in overtime, then watched as Troy Terry played hero in the sixth round of the shootout, giving Team USA its third world juniors gold since 2010. In Montreal.
Revenge has been the talk of the tournament.
The last time Canada beat USA at the WJC, Connor McDavid captained the team to gold in 2015. It's been a U.S.-heavy run since then with the Americans winning bronze (2016) and gold (2017) compared to Canada's lone silver last year. Everyone north of the border knows Canada's shortage of gold since winning five straight from 2005-09 weighs heavily on the minds of a nation, especially in the context of USA's resurgence on the international stage.
“It’s a heated rival. The only way it’s a rival is if both teams have to win and the pendulum will come back someday," Motzko said, beaming from the picture-perfect scene from the snow-globe stadium and what the win meant for USA Hockey. "I just hope it’s not this year. The pendulum will come back, because that’s what happens with rivals.”
All things considered, it could be worse.
This was a preliminary game, after all, even though the pomp and circumstance surrounding the first outdoor game in WJC made the stage seem bigger, even if it really wasn't. Canada still leads Group A thanks to the 3-2-1 point system in this year's round robin and can clinch the top spot with a win Friday against lowly Denmark, an easy task.
And then, in all likelihood, Canada will get another crack at the United States in the knockout rounds, where revenge would mean the most.
The latest chapter in this rivalry isn't yet written.
“If we had to lose, we’d rather lose in an overtime or a shootout. Because if we win tomorrow, we finish first," Ducharme said. "That’s a good position to come in. It’s a good way to learn. It doesn’t cost too much.”
