The U.S. men’s hockey team lost a world championship semifinal for an 11th consecutive time, again missing out on a first gold or silver finish since 1950.
Olympic champion Finland rallied from a 1-0 deficit to win 4-3 in Tampere, Finland, setting up a Sunday final against Canada, a 6-1 winner over the Czech Republic in the later semifinal. The Americans get the Czechs in the bronze-medal game.
The U.S. has lost all 11 of its semifinals at worlds since the IIHF reinstituted a bracketed playoff round in 1992. Its last silver medal at a standalone worlds was in 1950. Its last gold was in 1933.
Their Olympic medals in 1952 (silver), 1956 (silver) and 1960 (gold) also counted as world championship medals before the IIHF started differentiating the tournaments.
Nate Schmidt (Winnipeg Jets), Sean Farrell (Harvard) and Adam Gaudette (Ottawa Senators) scored for the Americans. The Boston Bruins’ Jeremy Swayman, who joined the team mid-tournament as an injury replacement, was in goal.
Finland got goals from Miro Heiskanen, Sakari Manninen, Sami Vatanen and Joel Armia.
While the NHL didn’t participate in the last two Olympics, rosters at the annual world championships include players from teams not still playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The U.S. roster, which has nobody over the age of 30, includes three Beijing Olympians: goalie Strauss Mann and forwards Ben Meyers and Farrell.
The most notable NHL veterans are four-time All-Star defenseman Seth Jones of the Chicago Blackhawks and Arizona Coyotes forward Alex Galchenyuk.
The head coach is David Quinn, who was also head coach of the Olympic team that lost in the quarterfinals to Slovakia.
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