The US beat the Czech Republic by a score of 6-2 last night to advance to the semifinals of the World U18 Championships where they will face Canada.
Ron Rolston did make the switch in goal, giving the start to youngster Jack Campbell, who made 21 of 23 saves in the win. I think they've got to stick with Campbell in tonight's game. Drew Shore had a huge game, scoring the first two goals of the game, and assisting on the third to help the US put the game out of reach early.
It always seems to come down to the Canadians standing in the way of the gold medal game for the US. In this tournament, that's not always such a terrible thing with Canada not having access to some of their best players, but it's still a tough team, and psychologically, just seeing those jerseys has got to be intimidating. The US offense has been explosive all tournament and while Canada has kept scoring down in this tournament, they still have question marks in goal. A couple early goals will hopefully give the team confidence and get the home crowd into the game. And as always, the US will need a huge performance out of their goalie.
I know a lot of people were looking for score updates last night. The best....well, the freest, option would be follow the live scoring on the IIHF's website.