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Team USA, Youngest in Group, Opens With Victory

05/04/2013, 4:00pm EDT
By Brian Pinelli

Having arrived in Helsinki on Thursday at 1 p.m. local time and having just two practices prior to today’s early afternoon contest, the U.S. overcame a slow start, scoring four goals in the second period to win its opener here against Austria, 5-3 in the first game for both teams at the 77th annual International Ice Hockey Federation Men’s World Championship.

“The legs kind of felt heavy and we had a wake-up call with the two turnovers where they scored two goals,” said team captain Paul Stastny, referring to Austria’s 2-0 lead just six minutes into the game. “I think the most important thing for us was to get the three points and now move forward. We have a lot of young skilled players and we can’t take any team for granted.”

Entering the second period trailing 2-1, the U.S. exploded over the next 20 minutes putting 14 shots on Austrian goalie Bernhard Starkbaum, four of which went in. Defenseman Erik Johnson scored twice, while Tim Stapleton and Aaron Palushaj also had tallies.

Saturday afternoon was Joe Sacco’s debut as head coach of the U.S. National Team. With the team together for just two full days in Helsinki, the former Colorado Avalanche head coach was successful in quickly preparing the squad.

“You have to trust the USA Hockey staff for some of that because it is a young team that we have over here,” said Sacco, when about getting the team ready and selecting line combinations. “There are some players that I’m not overly familiar with, but you trust the people you are working with to provide descriptions of the players and you try to match them up as much as possible.”

Erik Johnson, who played for Sacco in Colorado, spoke about the short preparation time and the affects of jet lag, playing seven time zones away from the east coast.

“It’s just tough to get used to the sleep schedule with guys not sleeping too much at night, but we’re hockey players, we adapt and adjust and just go out there and play,” said Johnson, who has won two gold medals as part of U.S. National Under-18 Teams and also a silver medal with Team USA at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

“We started a little slow today, but managed to come back and with some big saves from our goalie we turned the momentum around in the second,” said Johnson. “We capitalized on the power play. If you’re going to win in this tournament, you have to be good on special teams in this tournament and that’s what we did.”

Ben Bishop, who plays for the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning, made his first U.S. National team start and stopped 18-of-21 shots. His biggest save of the game came just over a minute into the second period when he denied Buffalo Sabres forward Thomas Vanek on a breakaway to prevent Austria from taking a 3-1 lead.

The U.S. converted on two-of-three power play opportunities and successfully killed off Austria’s lone man-advantage chance in the first period.

Johnson was the catalyst in the second period with his two-goal outburst, both on one-timers. His first goal, a big blast from the center point, opened the scoring in the period, while his second goal came through a screen with the U.S. on the power play about 15 minutes later.

“What he did today was that he used his shot and didn’t pass up any shooting opportunities,” said Sacco about Johnson. “He has a great shot and want him to use it. Putting a couple of shots on net he got rewarded. It will be good for his confidence.”

With an average age of 25.8 years, Team USA is the youngest in Helsinki. Team captain Stastny, 27, and Johnson, 25, are the only players with Olympic experience, having both contributed to the U.S. silver medal in Vancouver in 2010.

“It’s extremely important when you have such a young group,” said Sacco, when asked about Stastny and Johnson taking the lead on the ice. “A lot of these guys have played in international competition but not on this level. It’s an adjustment for these younger guys and when you have guys like Stastny, Erik Johnson, even David Moss and Matt Carle, they can lean on those experienced ones.”

“We’re a pretty young group and with me and Stas playing in the Olympics, we definitely have some more experience and also having played in the world juniors and under-18 worlds … we’ve kind of been around the block,” Johnson said. “We know the different ins and outs of being in Europe and traveling and you just kind of learn from it and these guys will do the same.”

The U.S. is back on the ice at Hartwall Arena on Sunday against Latvia at 8:15 p.m. local time/1:15 p.m. EST.

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