World Cup of Hockey Update: Canada, Europe to Meet in Final

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

The final two teams in the World Cup of Hockey are set. Team Canada, the favorite upon the start of the tournament, will face the surprise team of the tournament, Team Europe, in the best-of-three final series starting on Tuesday night.

Canada advanced to the final series with a 5-3 win over Team Russia on Saturday night. Sidney Crosby led the way with one goal and two assists in the game and opened the scoring in the first period.

Russia took a 2-1 lead late in the second period after goals by Nikita Kucherov and Evgeny Kuznetsov before Brad Marchand knotted the score with 2:24 left in the second period.

Marchand scored again at 1:16 of the third to put Canada up for good. Corey Perry and John Tavares would follow with goals by the midpoint of the third to open up a three-goal lead on Russia. Artemi Panarin scored with nine seconds left in the game to cap the scoring.

For Flyers fans, this game had little interest, as Claude Giroux was again a healthy scratch and did not play.

Team Europe pulled off a stunning win against Team Sweden in dramatic fashion, with a 3-2 overtime win on Sunday.

Sweden opened the scoring with a goal by Nicklas Backstrom at 2:31 of the second period. With 3:33 remaining in the period, Marian Gaborik tied the game.

Just 12 seconds into the third, Tomas Tatar scored to put Europe in front. That lead would hold until Erik Karlsson scored with 4:32 remaining in regulation.

In overtime, it was Tatar playing hero, scoring off a turnover at 3:43 to advance Team Europe to the final series.

While neither Mark Streit nor Pierre-Edouard Bellemare factored into the scoring, Streit was a plus-one and Bellemare had three shots and four hits in the game.

The two teams meet for the first time in the final series on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. Game 2 of the best-of-three will be on Thursday night, also at 8 p.m. If a third game is necessary, it will be on Saturday night at 7 p.m.