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Third period key in American victory over Portugal

2. 6. 2017 | Martin Voltr
The silver medailists from the last World Championship in Zug had a tough start in Pardubice. The United States took the lead over Portugal after only two minutes of play thanks to Cody Black, but a power-play goal by Adam Carreira quickly made it 1-1. The Portugese played pretty good and emotional game against defending runners-up. However, Team USA decided it in the last period with a pair of power-play goals. Cody Warila on a 5-on-3 and Bobby Housser on the continuing 5-on-4 scored the goals to secure the Americans´ first victory of the tournament.
 

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Alex Bovoletis (head coach, Team Portugal): It was a great, entertaining game which was absolutely decided on the power plays and penalties. They played 5-on-3 and got some lucky bounces, but on the other hand, our team had many chances to score the goals too. We played a little too hard and aggressive, and that was maybe the another reason why we lost the game.

Cory Herschk (head coach, Team USA): It’s always a battle against Portugal. Those guys do such a good job of keeping your offence outside, they don’t let you get inside on them and let you use your speed. They even try to trap you a little bit, which takes away the speed of team like ours. It’s always gonna be a fight. We had to keep competing and once we got our wheels moving to the third period, had some good power play opportunities, made them count, and that’s what this game is all about. We are happy with the first win.