Russian goalie Sergei Bobrovsky put in the best performance of the tournament but still lost to Canada
— -- TORONTO -- When Corey Perry snuck the puck away from Andrei Markov and scored to give Canada a 4-2 lead in the third period of the World Cup of Hockey semifinal, it seemed to take goalie Sergei Bobrovsky a long time to get up.
He wasn't hurt.
Just weary.
The shot was the 41st of the night fired on him by Canadian skaters.
He had turned in the finest goaltending display in the tournament.
In the absence of much quality defense, he had kept his team not just close but at one point one goal ahead.
During an early Russian power play, the Russians allowed not one but two two-on-ones.
Bobrovsky had almost literally stood on his head.
His glove save on a streaking Brad Marchand early in the third period to keep the game tied at 2-2 was a thing of beauty.
It was the kind of save that, at the time, made you wonder if we'd remember it as the one defining moment for a Russian team looking to upset Canada and move to the World Cup of Hockey finals. Could that moment of extreme thievery be the moment that would reverse the field and change the story of this tournament, maybe the story of the entire Russian team?
Did Bobrovsky think that?
"No, I don't think that way," the Columbus Blue Jackets goalie said. "I try to be focused on the moment right there and just keep going that way. It doesn't matter what's the score right now, so you just have to be focused."
In the end, that save wasn't that moment after all.
Twenty-two seconds after robbing Marchand, Bobrovsky couldn't track another long, hard Marchand shot and Canada had the lead for good en route to a 5-3 victory that sent the Canadians to the finals and sent the Russians home empty-handed once again from a gathering of the world's best players.
"Yeah, there was the bad combination for me, little bit traffic and perfect shot," Bobrovsky said. "So, he [shot] at the perfect time. I didn't see the start of the shot and obviously shot was very good."
After that, there was the Perry goal and later a wicked John Tavares shot found the back of the net.
"We didn't help enough, you know," Markov said. "He was great, like usual. But we need to better help, you know. Much better."
In all, Canada had 47 shots on goal. The Canadians missed the net 13 other times and Russian defenders blocked 15.
"Well, I felt great," Bobrovsky said. "I tried to do as much as I can for the team. I work hard. I give everything I had, but they were better than us today."
Later, people will look at the score of this World Cup semifinal and they'll think, oh, if only Russia had some goaltending, things might have been different.
And they won't know just how wrong they are.
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