A two-goal, one-assist performance by Jonathan Toews led Team Canada to a 4-1 win over Team Europe that clinched first place in Group A of the World Cup of Hockey on Thursday.
Canada will play either Team Russia or Team North America in the semifinals, while Team Europe meets Team Sweden in the other semi.
Sidney Crosby opened the scoring for Canada at 4:01 of the first period, and after the pair of goals by Toews, Logan Couture rounded out the scoring with a 4-on-4 goal with 2:27 left in the game. Corey Crawford was the winning goaltending, stopping 19 of 20 shots.
Marian Hossa scored for Team Europe while Jaroslav Halak made 42 saves.
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Nathan MacKinnon scored the winning goal at 4:11 of overtime as Team North America defeated Team Sweden 4-3 on Wednesday to remain in the running for a semifinal berth at the World Cup of Hockey in Toronto.
Team Sweden finished first in Group B and will advance to the semis with the one point it earned in the overtime loss while North America will have to wait for the result between Team Finland and Team Russia on Thursday.
If Finland wins, North America would advance to the playoffs, but if Russia is victorious, it would got to the semis based on the head-to-head tiebreaker (Russia defeated North America 4-3 on Monday.
Auston Matthews, Vincent Trocheck and Johnny Gaudreau scored the other Canadian goals while John Gibson made 35 saves for the win in net.
Sweden, trailing 3-2 after the first period, sent the game into overtime with a goal by Patrik Berglund at 6:50 of the third period. The other two goals came from Filip Forsberg and Nicklas Backstrom while Henrik Lundqvist stopped 45 of 49 North American shots in a losing cause.
MacKinnon’s 3-on-3 winning goal was a beauty. He got the puck alone in front of Lundqvist and made a series of quick stickhandling moves. Lundqvist tried to poke check the puck, but missed. MacKinnon dagged the puck to his backhand and put it high into the net.
Related story: Loss to North America “embarrassing” — Karlsson.
Related story: North America has won the hearts of fans
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Robinson Cano drove in Guillermo Heredia with a walk-off sacrifice fly in the 12th inning as the Seattle Mariners edged the Toronto Blue Jays 2-1 at Safeco Field on Wednesday.
After Baltimore also lost last night, Toronto maintained its one-game lead over the Orioles for the top Wild Card spot in the Major League Baseball’s American League with an 83-69. The Mariners moved to two games back of the Orioles in the chase for the No. 2 Wild Card at 80-72 with 10 games remaining.
A two-base throwing error by third baseman Josh Donaldson put Heredia on to open the 12th, and Heredia advanced when Donaldson dropped the ball as the Blue Jays tried to make a play at third on a sacrifice by Ben Gamel. That set up Cano for the game-winner off of R.A. Dickey, who entered in the 12th as Toronto's 10th pitcher of the day.
With Toronto trailing 1-0 in the ninth inning, Jose Bautista hit a 98 mph fastball from Edwin Diaz about 425 feet to tie the game. It was Bautista’s second home run of the month and the first since Sept. 12.
The Blue Jays will enjoy a day off on Thursday before opening a four-game series at home against the New York Yankees on Friday. Left-hander Francisco Liriano (1-2, 3.89 ERA with Toronto) will take the mound in the series opener vs New York's Bryan Mitchell with the first pitch scheduled for 4:07 pm. PT .
Related Story: Blue Jays in a confident place despite loss
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