Men's World

MINSK, Belarus — Seth Jones put forth a world-class effort notching two goals, including the overtime game winner, while unheralded Matt Donovan contributed to Team USA’s 4-3 victory over Kazakhstan, answering the call of duty at the last minute. 

Jones logged an immense 29:31 of ice time and played steady defensively, while Donovan scored a timely goal with just under five minutes remaining in the second period to put the U.S. ahead 3-2.

Both defensemen rose to the occasion when needed – the result of fellow blue-liner Jacob Trouba being a late scratch – in what was a crucial game for the U.S. 

In Trouba’s absence, Jones played six-and-a-half minutes more than he has been averaging at the tournament, while Donovan wasn’t even expecting to play until receiving a last-minute phone call in his hotel room.

“He was a big horse for us back there tonight; he did a terrific job,” said U.S. head coach Peter Laviolette about Jones. 

“It’s a lot of minutes, especially coming off a game last night when he probably logged the most minutes for us,” Laviolette said. “He was very impressive, his game was strong start to finish. Defensively he was good and offensively he certainly had an impact for us.”

The six-foot-four Jones blasted two shots past Kazakh goalie Alexei Ivanov, the game winner coming 1:05 into sudden death overtime.

“We didn’t want this one to be as close as it was to be honest,” said the 19-year old Jones. “It’s just a good thing that we found a way to get the two points.”

Donavan, who was part of the gold-medal winning 2010 U.S. National Junior Team and is a current member of the New York Islanders, explained how things transpired.

“I was hanging out in my hotel room with my dad and I got a call about an hour-and-fifteen minutes before the game to hurry up and come to the rink,” Donovan said. “When I got to the rink, they said Trouba can’t go, so you’re in. I tried to get warmed-up as fast as I could and get ready for the game.” 

With the contest deadlocked 2-2 late in the second period, Donovan rifled a perfect shot past the Kazakh goalie on a delayed penalty. A hustling Johnny Gaudreau – who was tripped and had fallen to the ice – slid a backward pass to the trailing Donovan. 

“He buried a nice shot,” Gaudreau said of Donovan’s goal. “It was important for him to step up and get a big goal for us like that.”

“Somehow he saw me and I just skated into it and shot it as hard as I could,” Donovan said referring to Gaudreau's contribution to his first world championship goal. 

“To add him late to the line-up like we did and for him to contribute like that was nice for him,” Laviolette said of Donovan. “He played a real solid game.”

Donovan’s tally would have been the game-winner had the U.S. not allowed Kazakhstan to tie the game with just under seven minutes remaining in the third period to force overtime.

After the game, Laviolette touched upon the last minute scratch of Trouba. 

“Throughout the tournament guys get banged up a little bit and I think it was just on the side of caution to make sure we keep everyone healthy,” Laviolette said.

Although the U.S. didn’t want or expect to be in such a tight contest with winless Kazakhstan, Friday’s victory was a good example of the youngest team in the tournament scratching and fighting to find a way to win.

The team’s eloquent elder statesman summed it up best.

“This is a short tournament, but you got to grow during the tournament,” said veteran goaltender Tim Thomas. “After the two losses (Russia & Latvia), this was an important game for us. We played a lot of the game the way we wanted to. There are still some areas where we need to be better moving forward, but overall we did a lot of good things.”

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