ICE HOCKEY: U.S. Men's Nat'l Team Tops Austria, 6-1, at IIHF Men's World Championship U.S. Men's National Team had a 6-1 victory over Austria here today in the second preliminary-round game for both teams at the 73rd annual International Ice Hockey Federation Men’s World Championship.
Photo: www.usahockeymagazine.com - Dustin Brown (Ithaca, N.Y./L.A. Kings) scored a goal and added two assists to help the U.S. Men's National Team to a 6-1 victory over Austria.
BERN, Switzerland – Dustin Brown (Ithaca, N.Y./L.A. Kings) scored a goal and added two assists to help the U.S. Men's National Team to a 6-1 victory over Austria here today in the second preliminary-round game for both teams at the 73rd annual International Ice Hockey Federation Men’s World Championship.
With the victory, the U.S. has secured a spot in the qualification round and will finish no lower than second in Group C. The U.S. will play its final game of the preliminary round Wednesday (April 29) against Sweden at 2:15 p.m. ET with first place in Group C at stake.
"We didn't capitalize on some of our chances through the first half of the game, but we showed a killer instinct in the third period and picked up an important win," said Ron Wilson, head coach of Team USA.
Brown scored the only goal of the opening period at 15:11 to give the U.S. a 1-0 advantage after 20 minutes. The Team USA captain gained possession of the puck on the side boards and maneuvered to the slot through traffic before backhanding the puck past Austrian netminder Jurgen Penker from 10 feet out.
Drew Stafford (Milwaukee, Wis./Buffalo Sabres/University of North Dakota) staked the U.S. to a 2-0 advantage at 11:04 of the second period when he tapped home a nice feed across the front of the crease by Nick Foligno (Buffalo, N.Y./Ottawa Senators). Austria scored its lone goal of the game with 5:34 left in the second period.
The U.S. erupted for four third-period goals, including three on the power play. Patrick O'Sullivan (Winston-Salem, N.C./Edmonton Oilers) tipped in a Brown shot from the point just :25 into the final stanza to give the U.S. a two-goal advantage. With the U.S. skating with a two-man advantage, Jason Blake (Moorhead, Minn./Toronto Maple Leafs/University of North Dakota) converted Brown's cross-crease pass at 7:36 to make it 4-1. Lee Stempniak (West Seneca, N.Y./Toronto Maple Leafs/Dartmouth College) and Matt Niskanen (Virginia, Minn./Dallas Stars/University of Minnesota Duluth) each scored power-play goals in the second half of the third period to finish the scoring.
Robert Esche (Utica, N.Y.) made 25 saves, including 11 in the second period, to pick up the win. Team USA had a 38-26 shots-on-goal advantage in the contest.
NOTES: Six different players recorded a goal for the U.S. in the contest and 11 different players gained a point ... Team USA won its opening two games in the World Championship for the fifth straight year … Team USA will practice tomorrow (April 28) from 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. local time at the PostFinance Arena in Bern … Dustin Brown was named the U.S. Player of the Game ... The IIHF Men's World Championship includes 16 nations, initially divided into four, four-team pools. In the preliminary round, each team plays the other three teams in
