Sunday, December 30, 2012

McCabe performs well in USA loss

Jake McCabe functioned well in his shutdown role Sunday while earning a late misconduct penalty as USA was defeated by rival Canada 2-1 at the 2013 World Junior Championship.

The Wisconsin sophomore continued to be effective on the penalty kill, smartly using his stick to break up passes and disrupt the flow of the Canadian forwards while paired with Connor Murphy (PHX) and later Seth Jones ('13). He didn't record a shot on goal in the contest, but he joined the rush and helped pin the puck deep before responsibly retreating back to his left defensive post. Through three games, McCabe has been one of the more consistent defensemen for Team USA.

Minutes after Jacob Trouba got Team USA on the board in the third period, McCabe was whistled for a questionable checking to the head penalty for a hit at the blueline. The two-minute minor was served by teammate John Gaudreau, while McCabe served the additional 10-minute misconduct as regulation time expired. The penalty to USA's captain seemingly sprung a leak in his team's discipline, with McCabe's being the first of five calls against the Americans over the final eight minutes of play.



Despite the barrage of late penalties, USA would receive a power play to run out regulation time but was unable to beat the red-hot Malcolm Subban to tie the game. Both Subban and Team USA goaltender John Gibson left spectacular performances on the ice, earning their teams' Player of the Game honors following the one-goal Canadian victory.

McCabe and Team USA will complete Group B round robin action Monday versus Slovakia.