Mike Smith Helps Team Canada Win Gold
Arizona Coyotes goaltender, Mike Smith, and Team Canada defeated Team Russia on Sunday to win the gold medal of the 2015 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship. Canada won by a large margin scoring six goals with Smith only allowing one in the final game of the tournament.
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Mike Smith finished the 2014-15 regular season on a high note and that has carried over to the IIHF tournament.
Smith was Canada’s third goalie during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia when Canada won gold. He didn’t see any action there, but this time around, he’s been an important piece for Team Canada.
Heading into the gold medal game, he was coming off of back to back shutouts in the quarterfinals against Belarus and the semifinals against the Czech Republic. Smith only gave up 12 goals in 10 games, carried a .930 save percentage and a 1.50 goals-against average.
His save percentage ranks third and his goals-against average ranks second in the entire tournament. He also had a shutout streak of 190:03 that was ultimately broken up by Evgeni Malkin late in the third period of the gold medal game.
After the semifinal game against the Czech Republic, Smith told Carol Schram of The National Post,
"“I think we played a solid game and that’s most important. We were in a tight hockey game all the way through and we handled it very well.”"
Smith’s teammate, Tyson Barrie, of the Colorado Avalanche had high praise for Smith. He told Schram,
"“Smitty was unbelievable. The Czechs came out firing the first 10 minutes there. He kinda kept us in it. He’s been doing that all tournament though. He’s been outstanding and we’re lucky to have him back there.”"
While this is a great personal accomplishment for Mike Smith, this is also good news for Coyotes fans.
Smith began the 2014-15 season in a bad way. He really struggled through most of the season. Toward the end of the year though, he turned it around. Smith was playing very well and looked like the goalie everyone expected him to be.
With this performance, he has shown that he is still playing at a high level. Coming off of an abysmal season for the Coyotes overall, this is great to see. Smith was able to find his way back to his old self and has been able to sustain it on an international stage against some of the best in the world.
If he can carry the momentum of this performance into the next NHL season, it would be a big boost to a team that is neck deep in a rebuild.