HERNING, Denmark — The third period of the world hockey championship quarterfinal between Canada and Denmark was dominated by a team that outshot its opponent 22-10 and scored a pair of game-breaking goals less than two minutes apart.
But it was not 28-time champion Canada, captained by Sidney Crosby and loaded with top NHL talent, that showed the killer instinct Thursday at a rocking Jyske Bank Boxen arena.
Plucky tournament co-host Denmark, which needed a shootout victory over Germany on the last day of preliminary round action just to reach the quarterfinals, saw Canada off with a 2-1 victory to the delight of their home fans.
Canada was eliminated despite having a team with several players from its championship roster at this year’s 4 Nations Face-Off, including Crosby, 2024 NHL MVP Nathan MacKinnon and goaltender Jordan Binnington.
“We had looks (at the net), but they were not the looks we wanted to have,” Canada coach Dean Evason said. “We did not get to the inside, and we did not do the things that we did all tournament to have success.
“It came back to bite us, and obviously this is a devastating loss. We needed to be better in all areas, but unfortunately, we were not. It is tough to swallow, and it is very frustrating and disappointing to come this far and fall short.”
With Canada clinging to a one-goal lead, the Danes pulled goaltender Frederik Dichow for an extra attacker with just under two minutes remaining. The move paid off when Nikolaj Ehlers — playing in just his second game of the tournament after joining Denmark following the elimination of the Winnipeg Jets from the NHL playoffs — fired a shot through traffic that eluded Binnington.
Riding a wave of confidence, the Danes completed the upset when Nick Olesen picked up a rebound and scored with 49 seconds remaining, sending Denmark to the semifinals for the first time.
“(The Danes) got some momentum from the tying goal, and it was a broken play (on the winning goal) that ended up in the back of our net,” Crosby said. “They pressed pretty hard in the third period, and we were in a good spot after we took the lead, but things turned pretty quickly.”
Denmark owes much of its victory to Dichow, who stopped all 30 shots he faced over the opening two periods to frustrate the Canadians and give his team no shortage of swagger. Canada outshot Denmark 18-4 in the first period alone.
Canada defenceman Travis Sanheim finally solved Sanheim at 5:17 of the third period, but the Danes would not back down. Binnington was called upon to make several saves as Canada held onto its tenuous lead before the Danes ultimately broke through.
“(The Danes) blocked a lot of shots, and they found a way to get a couple (goals) late,” Sanheim said. “We have to give them credit, they played hard the whole game and the crowd definitely helped them out. It is just an unfortunate and disappointing loss.”
Denmark appeared to open the scoring in the second period when Morten Poulsen scored on a breakaway, but the goal was disallowed due to a glove pass.
Dichow, a Montreal Canadiens fifth-round pick in 2019 who plays for HV71 Jonkoping in Sweden, made 39 saves overall, while Binnington stopped 30 shots for Canada.
Canada rolled into the quarterfinals after finishing first in Group A, ending the preliminary round with an emphatic 5-3 win over co-host Sweden in Stockholm.
“There is a lot of disappointment,” Crosby said. “We got better as the tournament went on, and while I do not think we were our best tonight, we were able to find a way to give ourselves a lead. It is disappointing because we have such a great group, but unfortunately we could not get it done.”
The Danes will face Switzerland, which routed Austria 6-0 on Thursday, in the semifinals on Saturday. The United States will take on Sweden in the other semifinal.
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