It was, Anze Kopitar said, his team’s finest performance of the tournament.
He liked an awful lot that Team Europe did against Canada in Game 1 of the World Cup final at the Air Canada Centre Tuesday night.
Almost everything about the game, in fact, except that his club’s best wasn’t good enough.
Not even on a night when Canada was nowhere near its best, at least for the first 40 minutes of what became a 3-1 victory against Team Europe.
“I thought they were better than us for large stretches of the game,” Canada coach Mike Babcock said.
Nonetheless, the Canadians will have a chance to wrap up the World Cup title by winning Game 2 Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Air Canada Centre. Game 3, if necessary, will be there Saturday at 7 p.m.
Center Sidney Crosby was, as usual, a major force in Canada’s offense, picking up assists on goals by linemates Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron to run his tournament-leading points total to nine.
Canada actually started well, killing an early penalty to Marchand, then getting a goal from him at 2:33 of the opening period. And when Steven Stamkos steered in a Ryan Getzlaf pass for his first goal of the tournament and a 2-0 lead at 13:20, Team Canada appeared to have a chokehold on the game, even though Europe had the better of play to that point.
Europe didn’t let up, however, running up a 13-9 edge in shots during the first 20 minutes, and controlling the game through much of the second.
“There was quite a bit of time during the game where we were dictating the pace, dictating the game,” Kopitar said.
Tomas Tatar sliced Canada’s lead to one seven minutes into the second period, and Europe sustained pressure on Canada goalie Carey Price, who finished with 32 saves.
“We gave them way too many chances and Carey kept us in the game, basically,” Bergeron said.
At least until the third period, when Crosby and his linemates put Europe out of the game, as they have to so many opponents in this World Cup.
Bergeron got the goal at 9:24, taking a feed from Crosby, who was behind the goal line, and beating Europe goalie Jaroslav Halak.
Bergeron’s goal eliminated any suspense about the outcome, assuring Canada of victory in a game it nearly gave away during the first 40 minutes.
“We didn’t play our game in the first two periods,” Stamkos said.
He was quick to note that Europe was a factor in Canada’s subpar performance.
“We have to give them some credit,” he said. “They’re a good team. They’re a smart team. They’re a patient team” — But Canada is capable of raising its game a level it didn’t approach Tuesday night.
“We didn’t play well at [all],” Bergeron said. “We have to be a lot better.”
Canada certainly can be. Whether Europe coach Ralph Krueger can wring much more out of his club than he did in Game 1 remains to be seen.
“We certainly showed that we can play with them,” Kopitar said.
True enough. Whether Europe actually can defeat Canada is another matter, however.
Aside from getting something out of its power play, which is now 0-for-15 in the tournament, and eliminating a few costly turnovers, Europe doesn’t have much room for improvement.
Nonetheless, the Canadians insist that they are not taking victory in Game 2 for granted, that Europe is a viable threat to extend the series to a third game.
Dave Molinari: dmolinari@post-gazette.com
First Published: September 28, 2016, 2:54 a.m.
