Tomas Tatar scored his second goal of the game 3 minutes, 43 seconds into overtime as Team Europe advanced to the final of the World Cup of Hockey with a 3-2 win over Sweden in Toronto on Sunday.
Tatar, of Slovakia, scored a controversial goal when the puck appeared to go in off his skate and past a startled Sweden goaltender Henrik Lundqvist at the Air Canada Centre.
“He created that whole overtime goal,” Team Europe coach Ralph Krueger said of Tatar. “We just continually found ways to do that, and that’s the beauty of this team.”
Team Europe advance to a best-of-three final against undefeated Canada, with the first game scheduled for today in Toronto.
Sweden challenged the call and it went to video review, but officials ruled it a good goal.
Tournament officials released a statement after the game with an explanation, saying the goal was allowed because Tatar did not intentionally kick the puck past Lundqvist.
“A puck that deflects into the net off an attacking player’s skate who does not use a distinct kicking motion is a legitimate goal,” the statement said.
Team Europe were the biggest long shots to get this far in the tournament as they have only been playing together for a few weeks.
The players are coached by Canadian-born Krueger and their roster is made up of a mixture of stars from Europe’s eight smaller hockey nations.
Their outlook appeared even bleaker when they were shut out 4-0 by a young Team North America in their first pre-tournament contest, but eventually European pride and skill took over as they won three of their past four games, with the only loss coming against Canada.
“There’s so much happening here within this group as far as players stepping up at different times to take us to victory, and today it was Tomas,” Krueger said.
Tatar also scored just 12 seconds into the third period to give Team Europe a 2-1 lead.
Sweden’s Erik Karlsson tied it with 4:32 left in the third, setting the stage for Tatar’s overtime winner.
Marian Gaborik also scored for Europe, while Nicklas Backstrom had a first-period goal for Sweden.
Sweden coach Rikard Gronborg said he was disappointed they did not reach the final, but liked the fight in his team.
“We battled back. The chips were down against North America, chips were down tonight and we’re still battling back,” Gronborg said. “There are things you want to go back and change, but right now I’m content we’re top four, but I’m obviously disappointed we’re not top two.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier