Men's World

Bolstered by another impressive display in goal by John Gibson and aggressive penalty killing, the U.S. improved its record to 5-1 with a 3-0 shutout victory over Germany.

Gibson, 19, gained his second win in two starts, looking more like an experienced NHL veteran than a starry-eyed teen-ager, keeping all 30 German shots out of the twine. He and his U.S. teammates weathered the storm of five German power plays.

“It’s pretty impressive, just the way he plays, how calm he is out there, his rebound control, and just overall” said U.S. forward Nate Thompson. “You can tell he’s going to be a good goalie for a long time.”

Gibson, who helped the U.S. win gold and was named tournament MVP at the 2013 IIHF World Junior Championship in Ufa, Russia, gave credit to his teammates.

“I think the team is playing really well in front of me,” said Gibson after the win. “They make my job a lot easier with the defense we have. Whenever I leave a rebound, they’re helping me out.”

“Two games now that he’s played extremely well,” said U.S. Head Coach Joe Sacco about Gibson. “It’s a credit to him that he pitched a shutout and also a credit to the guys who played in front of him.”

In 120 minutes of play in Helsinki, Gibson has given up just one goal.

Team USA entered its sixth contest of the tournament having allowed two power play goals in 16 opponent attempts. Despite Germany generating some worthy opportunities, the U.S. successfully killed two power plays in the first period, two in the second frame and one over the final 1:13 of the game to preserve Gibson’s shutout.

“It starts with off faceoffs…I think keeping control of rebounds that they get and clearing the puck is what we do a good job at,” said captain Paul Stastny about the team’s penalty kill. “Gibby made a couple of big saves early on and then there at the end to preserve the shutout, we really didn’t help him out too much there.”

“I had three of them today, so I take a big part in that, but the penalty kill came up huge” said Thompson referring to his three minor penalties. “It could have been a different game today. It was everybody contributing.”

“At times the game was a little undisciplined on our side,” Sacco said. “ We took too may penalties, we tried to discourage our team from doing that. We need to stay out of the box.”

Having now killed 19 of 21 opponent power plays (90.48%), the U.S. improved to fourth overall in the tournament.

The U.S. got off to its fastest start of the tournament, as Bobby Butler and Paul Stastny tallied goals in the opening five minutes of the game. Germany, however, fought hard throughout the contest and in the end finished with a 30-29 shots-on-goal advantage.

With 8:37 remaining in the third, forward Stephen Gionta slammed home a rebound off a Thompson shot, giving the U.S. the insurance needed in the important 3-0 triumph.

Stastny’s goal was his ninth point of the tournament (4-5--9), which moved him into a tie for second in scoring with Ilya Kovalchuk and Steven Stamkos. Justin Faulk’s first period assist gave him six points for the tournament, tops among defensemen.

The United States is seeking a medal at the IIHF World Championship for the first time since 2004, when it claimed bronze in Prague, Czech Republic. The last time the U.S. won the championship was in 1933, also in Prague.

“You always get the chance to change history,” Stastny said, after a foreign journalist suggested that history is against the U.S. at the world championship. “We’re not living in the past, we’re living in the present. After this tournament, hopefully we can make our own history.”