(WGR Sports Radio 550) – The remaining players representing the Buffalo Sabres at the World Championship in Czechia will play for the bronze medal after losses on Saturday in the semifinal round.
Dylan Cozens, Bowen Byram, Owen Power and Team Canada were on the losing end of a heartbreaking shootout loss to Switzerland, 3-2. The Canadians lost the five-round shootout, 2-1.
Connor Bedard (Chicago Blackhawks) opened the shootout with a goal, but that’s all Canada could get.
Kevin Fiala (Los Angeles Kings) and Sven Andrighetto, formerly of the Colorado Avalanche and Montreal Canadiens, scored on Jordan Binnington (St. Louis Blues) for Switzerland.
Cozens was the final shooter for the Canadians and missed. He’s 0-for-3 in his career with the Sabres.
Power made a really nice deke and had a wide-open net on his shootout attempt, but his backhand hit the post as he was falling to the ice.
Switzerland advances to the Gold Medal Game on Sunday against Czechia, while the two undefeated teams coming into play on Saturday, Canada and Sweden, will battle for Bronze.
The only reason Switzerland advanced was 36-year-old goalie Leonardo Genoni. Canada out shot the Swiss, 33-10, in the final 40 minutes, giving Genoni 42 saves in the game. He added four more in the shootout.
Genoni has been, by far, the best goalie of the tournament with a leading .935 save percentage and a 1.45 goals-against average.
Canada had three shorthanded breakaways, one by Cozens, and got stopped on all three.
Three former No. 1 overall picks combined on the goal to tie the game at the 17:53 mark of the third period. Power found Bedard, who relayed a perfect pass to John Tavares (Toronto Maple Leafs), who finally beat Genoni.
Just as time was expiring, Berard fed Cozens in the left circle for a one-timer, but Genoni came up huge.
Switzerland took a 2-0 lead as Fiala and Nino Niedereitter (Winnipeg Jets) scored power play goals. Brandon Tanev (Seattle Kraken) got one back in the second period, scoring from in-close.
Power led Canada in total ice-time on Saturday, playing 22:45. Meanwhile Byram was scoreless, playing 18:36. Cozens was also scoreless in the final two games, and played the most he did all tournament, going 22:47 with four shots on goal.
Cozens leads the tournament with eight goals, and was selected as one of Canada’s best three players of the tournament.
Team Sweden came into Saturday’s semifinal game 8-0-0, allowing just 10 goals in the whole tournament. However, they imploded against host Czechia in a 7-3 loss. Filip Gustavsson (Minnesota Wild) left after 29:03 of work, giving up five goals on 17 shots.
That means Rasmus Dahlin and Victor Olofsson will play for the bronze medal on Sunday against Canada. Dahlin had an assist, but was minus-3 for the game in 24:18 of work. Olofsson played 12:26 of ice-time in the loss.
Sweden even took the early lead when former Sabres forward Marcus Johansson (Wild) scored to make it 1-0. It was 2-1 Sweden when Czechia went on a 6-1 romp.
Martin Necas (Carolina Hurricanes) showed up on May 18, as Czechia held a roster spot open for him. He has a goal and five assists for six points in just four games for the Czechs. He had four points in this game alone.
David Pastrnak (Boston Bruins) showed up on Tuesday and has played three games with no points.
Czechia is 7-0-2 in the tournament. They will play Switzerland for the gold medal after losing to them earlier in the tournament in overtime.
