RIGA, Latvia – The 2006 U.S. Men’s National Team had its medal hopes dashed as Sweden gained a 6-0 win over Team USA in quarterfinal play of the 2006 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship today. A crowd of 2,800 watched at Arena Riga.

The United States finished play in the World Championship with a 4 -3-0 mark. Its final placing in the event will be determined after the remaining three quarterfinal games have been played.

“It wasn’t our day,” said Team USA Head Coach Mike Eaves (Madison, Wis.). “For whatever reason, we came out a little bit flat and that, combined with the strong play of Sweden, led to the end result.”

Sweden opened out to a 1-0 lead just 2:48 into the contest as Mika Hannula fired a shot to the short side on Craig Anderson (Park Ridge, Ill./Chicago Blackhawks) from between the circles. Hannula scored the second of his three goals off of a rebound in front at 15:40 to stake the Olympic champions to a 2-0 advantage after 20 minutes. Mark Cullen(Moorhead, Minn./Chicago Blackhawks /Colorado College) had perhaps the best chance for the Americans in the period, but was stopped from the left circle off a three-on-two United States rush in the final minute of the stanza.

Mikael Samuelsson made it 3-0 just before the 6:00 mark of the second period on his shot from the right circle. Ryan Malone (Pittsburgh, Pa./Pittsburgh Penguins/St. Cloud State Univ.) had a good chance less than two minutes later with a drive from the right dot, but Johan Holmqvist made the stop and did not yield a rebound. Kenny Jonsson’s power play blast from the center point at 15:34 through traffic gave the Swedes a 4-0 lead after two.

Hannulla completed his hat trick at 8:41 of the third period and Andreas Karlsson added a power play goal with 1:24 to play to account for the 6-0 final.

Anderson played the first two periods in goal for Team USA and yielded four goals on 20 shots. Jason Bacashihua (Garden City, Mich./St. Louis Blues) played the third period and stopped 11 of 13 shots. Holmqvist earned the shutout in net with 18 saves.

NOTES: Ryan Kesler (Livonia, Mich./Vancouver Canucks/Ohio State Univ.) was named Team USA’s Player of the Game … Following each team’s last game of the tournament, its top three players are recognized. Team USA’s honorees were defenseman Andrew Alberts (Minneapolis, Minn./Boston Bruins/Boston College) and forwards Dustin Brown (Ithaca, N.Y./L.A. Kings) and Ryan Malone (Pittsburgh, Pa./Pittsburgh Penguins/St. Cloud State Univ.) … Dustin Brown finished as Team USA’s top goal-scorer (5) and point producer (7) … Richard Park (Seoul, South Korea/Vancouver Canucks) was Team USA’s captain, while Hal Gill (Concord, Mass./Boston Bruins/Providence College) and Ryan Malone served as alternate captains … In goal, Craig Anderson finished with a 3-2-0 record, 2.36 goals against average and .908 save percentage, while Jason Bacashihua was 1-1-0 with a 2.14 goals against average and a .927 save percentage … Forward Phil Kessel (Madison, Wis./University of Minnesota) and defenseman Ryan Suter (Madison, Wis./Nashville Predators/University of Wisconsin) finished as Team USA’s plus/minus leaders, both at +2 … Ryan Suter was team USA’s top point getter on the blueline with 1-1--2 totals in seven games … Team USA’s power play operated at a rate of 15.4% (6-for-39) in the seven World Championship games, while its penalty kill finished at 86.7% (39-for-45).

GAME SUMMARY

USA  0-0-0 -- 0
SWE  2-2-2 -- 6

First Period – Scoring: 1, SWE, Hannula (Sundin), 2:48; 2, SWE, Hannula (Kronwall, K. Jonsson), 15:40. Penalties: USA, Reasoner (hooking), 4:06; SWE, Hallberg (interference), 6:30; SWE, Sundin (interference), 10:02; SWE, Hallberg (holding), 11:47; USA, Malone (interference), 16:02.
 
Second Period – Scoring: 3, SWE, Samuelsson (Nylander), 5:51; 4, SWE, K. Jonsson (Nylander, Samuelsson), 15:34 (pp). Penalties: SWE, Hannula (tripping), 7:02; USA, Suter (high-sticking), 14:59.
 
Third Period – Scoring: 5, SWE, Hanula (Nordquist), 8:41; SWE, Karlsson (Martensson, Kronwall), 18:36 (pp). Penalties: SWE, Franzen (roughing), 3:29; USA, Gill (holding), 5:48; USA, Alberts (roughing), 11:30; USA, Alberts (roughing), 15:51; USA, Orpik (cross-checking), 18:00.

Shots By Period            1     2     3      Total
USA                        8     7     3       18
SWE                       12     8    13       33

Goaltending (SH-SV)        1     2     3      Total
USA, Anderson    (40:00) 12-10  8-6    -      20-16
USA, Bacashihua  (20:00)   -     -   13-11    13-11
SWE, Holmqvist   (60:00)  8-8   7-7   3-3     18-18

Power Play: USA 0-5, SWE 2-7
Penalties: USA 7-14, SWE 5-10
Officials:  Referee-Brent Reibers; Linesmen-Mikko Kekalainen, Milan Novak
Attendance: 2,800